The Bet
by That Gorgeous Girl
Summary: The bet? A competition for the affections of Bulma Brief. The stakes? Winner gets the girl, loser leaves Capsule Corp. In matters of the heart, Yamcha knew he couldn't lose.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or any of the characters. Phew, glad I dodged that bullet.

**Chapter One**

Yamcha eyed his girlfriend sitting to the left of him at the Brief's kitchen table. To anyone else she would have looked innocent with her angelic countenance and wide-eyed expression, but Yamcha knew better. There was something amiss, and he intended to find out what it was. As it stood, there was a little under three years left before the androids arrived, and he knew he should have left Capsule Corp to go train for the new threat, but he just wasn't inclined to leave Bulma alone…with Vegeta. Feeling her boyfriend's gaze on her, Bulma looked up from the magazine she was reading and gave him a flirty wink. Yamcha's cheeks reddened and he quickly morphed his suspicious expression into a goofy smile.

"What's up Yamcha, something on your mind?" Bulma asked.

"Er, nothing babe, just thinking about how pretty you are".

Bulma arched a perfectly manicured blue eyebrow, "just pretty?" she asked teasingly.

"I mean, gorgeous", Yamcha promptly amended.

Bulma giggled, apparently satisfied with the upgraded compliment, and leaned forward to reward her man with a kiss. It was at that moment that a sweaty, shirtless Vegeta walked into the kitchen, it was lunchtime and he required sustenance after his grueling training session in the gravity room. However, upon witnessing Yamcha and Bulma's impromptu tongue war, he very nearly lost his appetite…and the contents of his stomach.

'Disgusting humans', Vegeta thought. Why they felt the need to subject others to their vulgar displays, he didn't know. But he wished they had the decency to limit their lewd behavior to the confines of their private quarters or at least keep it away from the designated dining area. Fortunately, he hadn't already been eating. After pulling away from her and Yamcha's kiss, Bulma's cheeks reddened a little when she realized Vegeta had seen them. This didn't escape Yamcha's notice.

"How's it going Veggie?" Bulma cheerfully asked.

Vegeta had asked her (ordered her) repeatedly not to call him that idiotic name, he knew she was just trying to get a reaction out of him but he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. He didn't even spare her a glance as he took his place at the table in the seat across from Bulma and crossed his arms expectantly. As if on cue Mrs. Brief emerged from the back of the kitchen with a tray piled high with BLTs.

"Good afternoon Vegeta!" she practically sang, "I bet you're just starving from all that hard work you've been doing!" she barely had time to sit the tray all the way down in front of him before he began slaughtering his lunch. Mrs. Brief just smiled and turned back to retrieve a pitcher of freshly made lemonade. She sat it and a glass in front of Vegeta. "Here's some lemonade dear", she cooed.

Vegeta grunted and briefly turned his attention away from the rapidly disappearing pile of sandwiches to take a few sizable gulps of lemonade straight from the pitcher, not even bothering with the glass.

"Oh my!" Mrs. Brief giggled and retreated to the back of the kitchen, presumably to do a lot of unnecessary baking.

Yamcha once again resumed his careful scrutiny of his girlfriend. Eyes narrowed, he glanced back and forth between the other two occupants of the table. Vegeta, completely engrossed in his meal, Bulma reading her magazine and covertly, or so she thought, sneaking glances him. Vegeta was not as oblivious at the moment as he appeared to be. He did notice the blue haired woman ogling him, and he certainly couldn't miss the murderous glare the weakling was directing towards him. He chuckled inwardly, so Scar Face was threatened by him. If he was a real man, then maybe his little mate's eyes wouldn't be roaming.

As utterly amused as Vegeta was about the current situation, whatever was going on with the fools didn't concern him. The only thing that mattered to him was his training; he had to achieve the Legendary Super Saiyan transformation, do away with the tin cans that were supposedly going to destroy him in about three years time, destroy Kakarot, destroy Earth, then assume his rightful place as ruler of the universe, in that order. Downing the rest of the lemonade, he abruptly pushed his chair back from the table and headed back outside to resume training.

Both Bulma and Yamcha watched him go, but for two decidedly different reasons. The heiress found herself captivated by his backside which clad in spandex shorts left little to the imagination, and Yamcha seemed to be attempting to sear the back of Vegeta's head with the intensity of his hateful stare. That hatred only further intensified when he turned back to Bulma and found her still staring in the direction Vegeta had gone. Yamcha cleared his throat loudly and Bulma blushed and diverted her attention back to the open page of the magazine she'd been unsuccessfully trying to read. Somehow, the article's exclusive report chronicling the shocking steamy affair between a hot young actress and the married director of her latest film became infinitely less interesting the moment the Saiyan Prince had entered the room.

'What's the matter with you girl? Why do you keep staring at that jerk Vegeta? Knock it off before Yamcha starts to get any ideas!' she scolded herself while willing the redness away from her cheeks.

If she had looked up from her magazine she would have seen that it was far too late for that. You could virtually see the wheels turning in his head. Fists and teeth angrily clenched, Yamcha began to think back to a few weeks ago. Vegeta was still out joyriding in space with the stolen Capsule Corp space craft and Yamcha, Bulma, Puar and Oolong had been enjoying some iced tea out on the balcony when Bulma had casually announced, "I had weird dream last night that Vegeta came back".

"WHAT? Vegeta? You dreamt about HIM?" Yamcha nearly yelled.

"You know, actually he was pretty nice to me in the dream, and a good kisser to boot", she continued.

"WHAT! You kissed him?"

"It was just a dream Yamcha", she'd said.

Just a dream? Well, even if Yamcha _was_ willing (he wasn't) to overlook the fact that his girlfriend fantasized about sucking face with a murderer, there were still other equally disturbing things that plagued him, namely the gravity room accident last week. Bulma had been so anxious when Vegeta got hurt, and the way she fussed over him and stayed at his bedside like that...it was the kind of attention that Yamcha felt should be reserved for him. And how bizarre it was that she would be worried sick about a scoundrel she barely knew and that had tried to kill them all. He knew from the beginning that Vegeta living at Capsule Corp. was a bad idea for obvious reasons, he was a dangerous killer after all, but it hadn't crossed Yamcha's mind to list Bulma not being able to keep her eyes off of him as a possible reason.

She was just WAY too attentive of her new house guest for Yamcha's inclination, and he didn't have a clue as to how she, (or anyone, anyone at all), could take any sort of liking to the guy. Seriously, _Vegeta_? What was there to like? That was probably what bothered him the most. Either way, he really didn't care for the way Bulma was behaving lately. Had it been him eyeballing another woman, she would have flipped out and broken up with him immediately, (she just loved doing that), but apparently it was OK for her to do it and then act like it was nothing? In her dreams! Actually, no, with the type of dreams she had, that wasn't OK either.

He refrained from saying anything to her about his concerns before because he wanted to believe that it was nothing, that he was just being silly, but now he wasn't so sure. The more he observed Bulma around Vegeta, the more it burned him up inside. It was time he and Bulma had a serious talk, it was best that he didn't put it off any longer. But the second Yamcha took to open his mouth and prepare to confront Bulma was the same second Puar chose to breeze into the room.

"Yamcha!" she cried in her high pitched voice, "Breaks over, time to get back to training!"

Yamcha sighed, he was annoyed at the interruption but the little cat was right. Lately he'd been half-hearted in his training, becoming more occupied with keeping a watchful eye over his girlfriend. He would deal with this Vegeta situation later when he was less agitated, right now he really needed to go blow off some steam. Forcing his features to imitate a smile, he stood up from his chair and turned to Bulma, "See ya after I get done training babe".

Bulma smiled genuinely, "OK Yamcha, I guess I'll be down in the lab for the rest of the day. Train hard, OK? Those androids won't know what hit 'em!" she proclaimed, giving him another one of her trademark winks. Yamcha nodded and trudged outside, Puar happily floating alongside him.

**AN: Well that's chapter one! Keep reading, it get's better & don't forget to review:-)  
**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If I owned it, it would have never ended. EVER.

**Chapter Two**

Yamcha was in the backyard going through the motions of his kata, all the while frequently glancing over at the GR, where Vegeta was undoubtedly punishing his body as only a stubborn Saiyan could. The steady hum of the GR began to grate on Yamcha's nerves unreasonable so, and his frustration began to fuel his less than graceful movements. He viciously attacked his imaginary opponent with renewed vigor, an opponent which happened to resemble a short, muscled man with a deep widow's peak, and dark hair upswept into a flame atop his crown.

"Go Yamcha!" Puar cheered. It had been quite a while since she'd seen Yamcha put this much effort into his training.

Yamcha ignored her or rather, he didn't hear her. He was so engrossed in his "fight" that he had forgotten she was even there. He just kept punching and kicking, fully intent on thrashing his opponent. He delivered a fierce gut punch, which made his imaginary foe double over in agony. But Yamcha could hardly glean satisfaction from this, because he knew that he'd never be able to achieve that in a real fight against the other warrior. The only way he could ever beat Vegeta was in such a fight as this, contrived from his own imagination. He just wasn't strong enough, and probably never would be strong enough to even survive a fight with him.

This bitter revelation only served to make Yamcha even more furious. He swung his fists about wildly, and roundhouse kicked like a madman until he felt his foot connect with something solid. He snapped out of his angry daze just in time to see Puar sailing across the Capsule Corp. grounds, her high pitched voice becoming fainter the farther she was launched away from Yamcha's still outstretched leg.

"Oh crap!" Yamcha exclaimed as he took off after his friend. Puar wasn't moving when Yamcha knelt down at her side. "Puar!" he yelled, "Come on Puar, please be OK!"

Puar cracked her eyes open, barely able to register Yamcha's face with all the stars dancing around her eyes. "Yamcha?" she managed in a small voice.

"Gosh Puar, I'm really sorry. It was an accident; I guess I got a little too carried away. Are you alright?"

"Um, I think so. Gee Yamcha, you really aren't messing around today".

Yamcha just lowered his eyes guiltily for a moment, and then snapped his head up in the direction of the GR, glaring death at it. As if it was Vegeta's fault he'd brutally kicked his faithful companion in the head.

From inside the GR Vegeta chuckled darkly, well as much of a chuckle he could manage while straining under the pressure of 400x gravity. He had felt the weakling's pitiful spike in ki and had a good idea as to what was going on. He wasn't aware of Puar's misfortunate of course, but he knew that obviously Yamcha was still chafed about lunch earlier. Vegeta smirked as he switched arms to begin a set of 10,000 handstand pushups on his left hand. 'If he wasn't so pathetically weak, then perhaps he could do something about it', the Prince jokingly mused.

The scar faced human really was quite pathetic, dying at the hands of a lowly saibaman with a puny power level of 1,200. If Vegeta wasn't in such deep concentration, he would have been outright guffawing at the memory. He didn't know why the weakling even bothered training, as he would be utterly useless against the androids. He was hardly a warrior. He was hardly even a MAN.

Vegeta saw how he would present the blue haired woman with ridiculous flowers and bow to her every whim. And whenever she expressed any anger or displeasure towards him, he would immediately back down and apologize to escape her wrath. This confused Vegeta greatly as, though Yamcha's power level was trivial it was still several hundreds of times greater than the woman's. So what in the galaxies was the human afraid of?

On Planet Vegeta, the women had only desired to mate the strongest males. Saiyan women were no pushovers, but the male had to be able to establish dominance over the female in order to initiate any sort of courtship of her. A Saiyan female would not be moved by a colorful little plant. If you wanted to impress a Saiyan female, you would bring her the carcass of one of the great beasts that roamed the forests on the outer edges of The Great Kurimuzon Desert; something that was of actual use, and attestation of the male's strength.

The flowers the weakling bought his woman did nothing more than die a slow death in a corner until they were eventually thrown out, and Bulma may as well be the male in the relationship and Scar Face the female. No wonder she was losing interest. None of this was Vegeta's problem, though on his home planet if a male felt threatened by another male, he would issue a formal challenge and then a fight to the death would ensue. It was safe to say there was no chance of this happening as he doubted earthlings practiced such a custom, and the weakling had expressed several times since his death that he was highly averse to dying again.

'9,996, 9,997, 9,998, 9,999, 10,000', Vegeta mentally sounded off. Lowering his right hand back down to the floor, he righted himself and walked over the GR console to activate the sparring bots. Once engaged, he expelled all wayward thoughts not pertaining to his objective and concentrated only on dodging and deflecting the beams of energy shooting at him from all sides.

Across the lawn, Yamcha kept at his training minus Puar, who had sought refuge inside the compound. Instead of taking full responsibility for his actions, naturally Yamcha had just chalked the incident up as yet another reason to dislike the prince. He was still miffed but considerably less incensed than he was before, and thinking more clearly. And all his thoughts arrived at the same conclusion; Vegeta had to go. Of course the Brief's would not be persuaded to kick him out; if he had the strength he'd kick the little jerk out himself. But no, he was severely outclassed, if he was to rid himself of the guy, he wouldn't be able to do it with force. He had to find a way to level the playing field, or more preferably, tip it in his own favor.

Yamcha was not worried about his girlfriend cheating on him, Bulma had always been faithful to him, he was sure of this. Unfortunately, a certain Saiyan asshole was distracting her as of late and he had a pretty good idea as to why. It wasn't because Vegeta was better looking than him. He didn't think Vegeta was very good looking at all and he knew a good looking guy when he saw one. Why, he saw a devastatingly handsome man every time he looked in the mirror, if it came down to a beauty contest between the two, he'd have it in the bag. So, no, it wasn't the alien's looks, and it wasn't his physique either.

Yamcha touted an impressive build of his own and besides, Bulma was used to being around muscular men, so that sort of thing simply wouldn't faze her. Also Vegeta was slight; most women held that tall, dark and handsome ideal and Bulma was no different. Vegeta wasn't tall, he wasn't particularly handsome in Yamcha's opinion, but he was unquestionably DARK. And therein lay the allure.

Bulma was just attracted to Vegeta because he's a "bad boy" Yamcha reasoned. Every woman went through that phase, though he thought she'd gotten that out of her system through him back in his desert bandit days. Apparently she was having a relapse. Unlike Vegeta though, Yamcha turned out to be a good guy underneath it all. Vegeta was just one bad apple, rotten to the core, incapable of caring about anyone other than himself. Once Bulma realized that beneath the layers of darkness and evil there was nothing more to the Prince but more layers of darkness and evil-

"That's it!" Yamcha shouted gleefully. He was no match for Vegeta in power, but he'd found another way to defeat him. And with that, he prepared to wait the Saiyan out. He knew it'd be several more hours before he emerged from the GR but he could train just as long as Vegeta could, he assured himself.

Hours later, Vegeta restored the chamber to normal gravity and grabbed a towel to remove some of the sweat and grime from his skin. Slinging the towel around his neck, he opened the door to the GR, and found himself face to face with a very determined looking Yamcha. Vegeta's eyes widened slightly, 'Is the fool really going to fight me over the woman?' he wondered incredulously, 'Hm, perhaps the weakling has managed to grow a spine since noon'. He discarded his towel and readied himself for a fight, he had exerted most of his energy training, but it still wouldn't take much effort to dispose of the human. Then Yamcha opened his mouth to speak.

"Capsule Corp. ain't big enough for the both of us Vegeta", he stated, sounding very much like a western movie cliché.

The Prince kept his visage blank, giving nothing away.

Yamcha continued, "And you're going to be the one to leave" he finished.

Vegeta scoffed, "Oh really weakling? And I suppose you're going to make me go? Your power level is laughable; you have no hope of forcing me to do anything. The only thing you will accomplish here is another trip to the next dimension".

Yamcha clenched and unclenched his fists. "I didn't come here to fight you Vegeta; I've come to make you a deal".

"I don't make wagers with weaklings", the Prince replied in a bored tone, immediately losing interest once the prospect of obliterating Yamcha vanished. He pushed past the other fighter, wanting nothing more than a shower and a good meal, not standing around wasting his time with an idiot.

"Hey!" Yamcha protested to Vegeta's back. Vegeta kept walking. "If you win the bet, you'll never have to see my face around here anymore!" he called after him.

The Saiyan sighed and turned around to face the human, arms crossed in annoyance. "What are the terms?" he demanded, vaguely curious to see what he would have to do to be rid of the weakling's irritating presence.

Yamcha took a deep breath, "Just one thing, but if you fail, you have to leave Capsule Corp. for good."

Vegeta growled. He had officially exhausted all of his patience on this human, "Just spit it out right now, or so help me I will blast you where you stand!"

"All you have to do is make Bulma fall for you".

**AN: I know the first chapter wasn't much but thanks to all that reviewed it anyway. This is my first fanfic and I hope you'll find this story is a little different from many other 3 yr. stories. I know I haven't read one like it. Also, I wonder why in most stories that Yamcha lives somewhere else, when he's always lived at C.C and went back to live there after he was brought back to life, right? Well in my story he does lol. Well, Yamcha seems pretty sure of himself doesn't he? Will Vegeta even agree to the bet? R&R! **


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ…or DB…and I definitely do NOT own DBGT.

**Chapter Three**

The Prince reared back in shock, and then almost immediately doubled over in a fit of laughter. He couldn't believe it; instead of fighting him like a man the idiot was actually offering him his female! He didn't think it was possible, but Scar Face had just surpassed his previous level of patheticalness. Vegeta wiped a tear from his eye. What a fool! Any insult he'd ever dealt him was too kind.

Yamcha squared his shoulders indignantly. "Just what is so funny?" he demanded.

Vegeta was still roaring with laughter and slapping his knee at this point. Yamcha frowned and waited for him to get a hold of himself. After a while, the Prince was finally able to regain his composure but nearly lost it again when Yamcha asked:

"So do we have a deal or not?"

Vegeta shook his head in disbelief. "Do we have a deal? This so called _deal_ you're proposing sounds more like a brainless joke! Why would I go through the trouble of taking your woman just to get rid of you, when I could simply continue to ignore your pointless existence like I do any other day?"

"Yeah right pal, like you could take my girl. You won't agree to this bet because you know you can't win" Yamcha huffed with his nose up in the air.

All traces of amusement vanished from the Saiyan's face.

Yamcha just kept right on going. "I bet a guy like you doesn't have much luck with the ladies" he pretended to muse aloud.

Vegeta's eyebrows began to twitch.

"Say!" Yamcha exclaimed, "How 'bout I give you a few pointers?"

"How about I make you dead again!" The Prince bellowed. He was almost trembling with the effort it took not to reduce the other fighter to a pile of ashes.

Yamcha put his hands up in supplication, "Hey, take it easy there Vegeta". He said nervously, deciding he'd better tone the cockiness down a bit.

Vegeta saw right through Yamcha's feeble attempt at manipulation. He usually didn't mind letting himself be baited, as long as there was the promise of bloodshed, but the fool had made it clear he didn't want to fight, thus his proposal was not at all attractive to him. Scowling one last time at the human, he spun on his heel and headed straight for the Capsule Corp. building.

Yamcha's shoulders slumped in defeat. He was so sure Vegeta would take the bait. He'd never seen the temperamental alien back down from anything. He dragged his feet towards the house, his limbs weighing him down considerably. To his credit, he'd stood tall during his interaction with the Saiyan Prince, but now he was really starting to feel the consequences of his extended training session. Well, at least he proved he could train as long as Vegeta could. He had missed dinner but he didn't care, he just wanted his bed.

In the shower Vegeta was still fuming over the encounter with Yamcha.

"The nerve of that-, that weak, pitiful excuse of a warrior!" he groused as he angrily shampooed his hair. He was the Prince of all Saiyans; he'd never had any problem getting a woman. Raditz used to particularly despise him for this because while he had to employ all sorts of manipulative tactics just to bed one woman, Vegeta did virtually nothing and women just seemed to worship him. Nappa had found the rather one-sided rivalry between the two younger Saiyans quite hilarious; Raditz's jealousy of his prince was a great source of amusement within their squad. Vegeta chuckled at the memory.

He had, had many women, and mostly all of his experiences had ended badly due to the fact that they all ended up getting too attached to him and started behaving like lunatics when he inevitably got bored and moved on. Some of them were enraptured by his "lovemaking" (their word, not his), and some of the fools actually believed they were in love with him. For whatever reason, none of them ever wanted to let him go.

But his real troubles with women began when a few of them had taken to sneaking onto Frieza's bases in attempts to see him. He didn't know how they find out his location, or how they managed to bypass security, but the audacity they displayed in infiltrating the tyrant's military facilities put all of the enemies of the Cold Empire to shame. It was a running joke amongst the soldiers but Frieza was not amused.

He ordered that all of "Vegeta's whores" were to be killed on sight, a declaration which Vegeta was unaffected by as it wasn't like he had encouraged the women's antics. Then days later, Frieza sent him on a solo mission to a small glacial planet about two weeks journey from where he was stationed. Vegeta knew that the mission was intended to be his real punishment because the planet was useless to the Planet Trade Organization, and also because Frieza KNEW that Saiyans hated the damn cold!

Planet Koori had but a few hundred thousand inhabitants. Such a small populace should have made for an easy purge, except he couldn't locate the beasts on his scouter as it wouldn't function properly in such extreme conditions, and it wasn't like he could sense ki at the time. Tracking them the old fashioned way was extremely difficult because the creature's coloring allowed them to completely blend in with the environment. As if they wouldn't have been difficult enough to locate with the constant raging winds and blizzards.

He could have gone Oozaru, but then he just would have been stomping about the planet like a buffoon, not even sure if he was killing anything. Also, he had strict orders not to harm the surface of the planet, so simply blowing it up was out of the question. Freiza had certainly outdone himself that time. There wasn't even anything edible on that worthless star, the natives sustained themselves with some sort of red algae that grew there, but it was poisonous to pretty much any other species. And he couldn't very well eat the natives because all they did was consume that poisonous filth all day.

While hunkered down in a cave on that wretched world freezing his tail off and eating snow, Vegeta had come to the conclusion that women were far more trouble than they were worth. His father had warned him of that long ago when he was still a small child, but sometimes one just had to learn things the hard way.

By the time he finished his shower, Vegeta was considerably calmer and he resolved not to let the weakling's comments get to him because he was only speaking out of severe ignorance. The Prince would not deign to educate him.

Bulma was just finishing up in the lab where she had spent most of the day helping her father. A lot of that help consisted of just keeping the old absent-minded scientist on task. She knew the day would soon come for her to take over as President of Capsule Corporation, but she was content to delay that day for as long as possible. While tidying up her work station she thought about her behavior at lunch earlier that day and immediately became embarrassed all over again that Yamcha had caught her staring at Vegeta like that.

It wasn't that she had any sort of romantic interest in the Prince, she just found him…intriguing. She wondered what he did in his spare time when he wasn't training or ripping through insanely large quantities of food, but there was little need to wonder because she was sure that was all he did with his time. The guy needed to learn to lighten up, have a good time. Smile a little. From what Bulma had seen of him on Namek and his time on Earth, the only time he sort of smiled or appeared to be experiencing some enjoyment was when he was insulting someone or about to kill them. That didn't sound very fun to Bulma; Vegeta was such a drag.

She glanced at the clock. 9:00 pm. She wondered what Yamcha was up to, she'd missed him at dinner which was unusual. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for Vegeta to miss dinnertime but she and Yamcha always had dinner together. Figuring he should be back inside by now, she finished putting her materials away and headed upstairs to his room.

After his shower Vegeta headed downstairs to the kitchen. Flipping on the lights, he strode right up to the oven where Mrs. Brief customarily stored his dinner for him. Opening the door to the oven he was pleased to find that she had made his favorite; MEAT. He removed the roasted lamb from the oven along with the potatoes and vegetables she'd prepared with it. When he had everything spread out on the kitchen table, he went to the fridge to grab a couple of sports drinks and sat down to enjoy his feast.

Once he finished devouring everything he was sated, for the most part, but he wanted something more; something…sweet. He surveyed the kitchen looking for something that might suit his fancy when he noticed a small glint from out of the corner of his eye and turned in that direction. Then he spotted it, looking glorious in its glass encasement. Licking his lips, he stalked over to it.

Bulma let herself into Yamcha's room only to find him sprawled across his bed still in his orange gi, snoring and drooling away. She frowned, Yamcha told her he would see her after he got done training; how the heck was he supposed to see her if he was unconscious? Hands on hips she went over to the bed and leaned over his sleeping form.

"Yamcha!" she yelled in his face, he didn't stir. She narrowed her eyes and gave him a good pluck on the nose, still nothing.

"Well, so much for that" she huffed. 'What should I do now?' she wondered. Then she remembered her mother, God bless her confection loving soul, had made her favorite desert today; a four layer German chocolate cake topped with fresh strawberries. Bulma's mouth began to water in anticipation. She forgot all about Yamcha and made a beeline for the kitchen.

All hopes of getting some chocolatey strawberry goodness vanished when she saw Vegeta standing over the cake. It was a hopeless situation she knew, because it wasn't like he was just going to have a slice of it, she'd spent enough time around Saiyans to know that they didn't just have a _slice_ of anything. Bulma groaned.

"You mind letting me get a piece of that before you inhale the whole thing?" The heiress whined.

Vegeta smirked evilly and proceeded to remove the lid from the glass cake dish. "Like you need any, isn't your ass wide enough Woman?"

Bulma gasped. "You take that back you jerk!"

Vegeta chuckled. "Not my fault you can't handle the truth", he said, sitting the lid on the counter.

"That's not true! And what are you doing looking at my butt anyway you little perv?" Bulma countered.

"How could I miss it when you insist on wearing garments too small to contain all of your bulging flesh?" The Prince volleyed back.

Bulma's hands flew to her hips, her usually bright blue irises darkening dangerously. Her flesh did NOT bulge and her clothes were **perfect**!

"There is nothing wrong with my clothes! What do you know about fashion anyway, Prince of all Dweebs!" she nearly screamed.

Vegeta paused to look around the kitchen trying to remember where the Briefs kept the silverware. He certainly wasn't going to eat the cake with his hands. Locating the right drawer he selected the largest spoon he could find and turned to face the flustered woman.

"You're right" he said smoothly shrugging nonchalantly, "there's nothing wrong with your garments".

Bulma blinked in surprise, taken aback by the sudden shift in his tone, "Really?"

"If you work at a brothel, that is", the Prince added, smirking triumphantly when the woman could only stand there gawking at him in outrage, her mouth agape but unable to produce a retort. Vegeta chuckled and approached the cake again, spoon in hand, fully intent on eating it right in her face. But Bulma wasn't done yet.

She recovered herself and stomped over to the smug Saiyan. "Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time?" she demanded, refusing to let the brothel comment get to her. "Why don't you attempt to go get a life instead of walking around like a tough guy all the time and being rude to everyone? Sheesh! Live a little, go out and have some fun! Go out on a date", she paused, "Well, not a date, I don't suppose you could get a girl to stand you for that long" she reasoned, tapping her chin in deliberation.

Vegeta crumpled the utensil in his fist, cake forgotten.

"You idiot! If I wanted a woman, I would have a woman!" he shouted.

"Uh-huh, sure Veggie" Bulma said dismissively, she was too busy trying to imagine the surly Prince out on a date. She couldn't.

A very furious Vegeta stormed out of the kitchen leaving the self absorbed woman to her musings. It was moments later before she even noticed his departure.

Bulma blinked. "Now where did he run off to? Was it something I said?"

Then she noticed the cake was still on the counter unscathed. With a brilliant smile on her face she helped herself to a piece, making sure to get lots of strawberries. Victory never tasted so sweet.

Vegeta stood in the middle of his room for a full three minutes just fuming before he went out on his balcony and flew up to the roof, his favorite brooding spot. It wasn't until he landed on the domed surface that he realized the blasted spoon was still in his hand.

"Damn it all!" he yelled as he chucked the mutilated silverware at the sky.

This was the second time in the space of two hours that someone had doubted his ability to acquire a female. What with those idiots? Didn't they realize that he had more important things to do than bother with women? He had to get stronger; he had to become a Super Saiyan! That was the only thing that mattered to him and this latest annoyance was not at all worthy his time. But still, the Prince had his pride, and it had endured way too many affronts for him to ignore. It was clear to him that the humans needed to be reminded that he was not one to be trifled with and unluckily for them; he had decided to do just that. Crushing them both, as he so longed to do at the moment, was out of the question but no matter, he had other ways of making them suffer. With a look of pure evil, Vegeta announced to the cosmos, "I accept your wager weakling".

**An: Whew, glad I got all of that out of the way, now I can really get into the story. Thanks for hanging in there with me, just had to establish a few things first and make it more believable. Wouldn't be very believable if he'd just accepted the bet right off huh? Also, were you surprised that Bulma won the cake war? Haha. One more thing, YES patheticalness IS a word and patheticness is NOT lol who knew? I didn't until I looked it up and I like to be as accurate as possible so I used patheticalness instead. Anway, R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wait…false alarm, still don't own it.

**Chapter Four**

Mrs. Brief hummed happily as she bustled about the kitchen getting breakfast ready for the household. Dr. Brief was at the table reading his newspaper with Scratch perched on his shoulder and Yamcha was talking animatedly with Puar. Vegeta however, was observing Mrs. Brief. There was one thing he just could not figure out about the blonde woman. While she seemed to have a strange fascination with food (especially sweets), and was always encouraging those around her to eat, she hardly ate anything herself. In fact, Vegeta had never seen her eat a damn thing. He'd seen her have the usual cup of tea, but that was it.

She was a thin woman, but she didn't appear to be malnourished so she had to be eating _something_. 'Did the woman eat in secret?' Vegeta wondered. However, when Mrs. Briefs sat a humongous stack of blueberry crepes topped with whipped cream in front of him, he decided that some mysteries were better left unsolved.

Just as everyone began eating, Bulma finally ambled into the kitchen still rubbing sleep from her eyes, and took her usual seat across from Vegeta. It was a usual morning, with the usual breakfast chatter, and as usual, Vegeta did not participate in it. As he sat there making quick work of his food, he could feel the woman's eyes on him and he knew it was coming. He mentally counted down, '5, 4, 3, 2…'

"So, got any plans today Vegeta?" Bulma asked, expecting maybe a grunt at the most.

"Training"

Everyone stopped eating and stared at Vegeta. Bulma always attempted to make conversation with him during meals, but he never actually RESPONDED, not with words anyway. Deciding it was a fluke, everyone went back to what they were doing, with the exception of Yamcha who was glaring suspiciously at the Prince.

"Uhh, OK…" Bulma faltered, she was just as shocked as everyone else. Then she remembered something, and deciding that it couldn't hurt to ask she ventured, "Well, do you think you could help me move some things in the lab before you start training? It'll only take a sec".

Again, all eyes were on Vegeta waiting to see what his response would be.

"Sure" he replied, not taking his attention off his plate.

"Bulma, why are you asking HIM? Why didn't you just ask ME to help you?" Yamcha protested.

The heiress looked confused. "Well Yamcha, don't you start baseball practice today?" She asked.

Taitans baseball practice. Yamcha had totally forgotten and, he glanced at the kitchen clock, if he didn't get a move on he was already going to be late.

"I guess" Yamcha huffed, crossing his arms.

Bulma rose from the table, "Just meet me down in the lab when you're finished Vegeta" she told him, and then turning to her father she added, "Have a good time Daddy!" The old scientist was getting ready to go to the Capsule Corp. offices in downtown West City.

"I'll try to sweetheart" Dr. Brief threw over his shoulder as he was leaving.

Once the two scientists were gone, Vegeta looked over at Yamcha. "Don't get too comfortable here Weakling, you won't be around much longer" he said to the human, his trademark smirk present on his face.

Yamcha frowned "Oh yeah? And what's that supposed to mean?" He asked haughtily.

Vegeta was only too happy to inform him. "It _means_ that I've agreed to your little bet, and you'll soon see how foolish it was for you to ever think to challenge me".

Puar looked back and forth between the two fighters. 'What has Yamcha gotten himself into this time!' she thought fearfully.

Yamcha just ignored that last bit. 'I wonder what made the jerk change his mind?' he speculated briefly, then decided it didn't matter. "Since we've got ourselves a deal, I guess we should put a timeframe on this thing so we know when the bet's over" he said more to himself than Vegeta. His thoughts were cut short by menacing laughter.

"Oh believe me, this won't take long and the moment the woman is no longer yours…you'll know it" Vegeta said, getting up from the table and laughing his evil laugh all the way to the lab.

Yamcha scowled at the Prince's back. "Why, that little prick!" he fumed. He wasn't worried or anything, it was just that the Saiyan's arrogance could be quite infuriating. Nope, Yamcha wasn't worried at all; _actually_, he was quite pleased with the turn of events. Now he could finally get rid of Vegeta because he had no chance in hell of winning this bet. Yamcha scoffed, the cocky little man was just too stupid to see it.

"Um, Yamcha…" Puar began.

"Let's go Puar" Yamcha said cutting her off. He got up from the table to go collect his baseball gear and try to make it to practice on time. He left the premises trailed by a very worried cat.

Bulma looked up when she heard Vegeta coming down the steps of the laboratory. "Hey you" she said brightly when the Prince came into view. Vegeta gave a grunt of acknowledgement. Bulma stood up from her desk, "Right this way" she said, leading him deeper into the lab. In the back corner was a big dusty pile of junk that she needed to move out there. Most of that junk was abandoned projects that she and father had lost interest in, and some of it was outdated gadgets and materials scrapped from various machinery. She needed the space to make room for more promising inventions. A lot of the stuff she could handle moving on her own, but there were a few things in there much too heavy for her to lift. That was where Vegeta came in.

"OK, this is it" Bulma announced.

Vegeta raised an eyebrow. _This _was what she needed help with? 'Earthlings truly are pathetic' he thought to himself, but said nothing. The Prince and the heiress set about transporting the junk to a storage unit behind Capsule Corp. otherwise known as the Invention Graveyard. They went about their task in silence, Vegeta doing most of the work of course. As he was out taking care of the last of the heaviest objects from the pile, Bulma stood in front of the now empty corner dusting her hands off.

"Well that takes care of that" she said, pleased with the newly created space. When she turned around she found herself practically nose to nose with Vegeta. Bulma gulped. The Prince just stood there for a few moments taking in her features. The slight fullness of her parted lips, the light pink color spreading across her cheeks and nose, and finally the wonderment in her eyes. He lingered at her blue orbs, staring intently into them as if he was searching for something in particular. Shifting his gaze somewhat to the right, he reached his hand up to her hair, and plucked a cobweb from it. Glancing back at her once more, he turned on his heel and left the room.

Bulma recovered from her stupor, suddenly remembering that she needed to breathe. She stood there for a while panting with her hand over her chest.

"Good grief Bulma, did you think he was going to try to kiss you or something?" She chided herself, laughing nervously. Shaking her head, she made her way back up to the front of the lab to go look in the mirror she kept at her desk. As she checked herself over for anymore cobwebs or dust bunnies that may have adhered themselves to her person, she carefully chose not to address the small part of her that was hoping he would.

Vegeta could have laughed in the woman's face. He knew what she was expecting him to do, and from the look in her eyes she probably would have welcomed it. 'This really won't take long' he thought as he did his warm-ups in the GR. Aside from doing what he always did, he didn't have a particular strategy for winning over Bulma. All women were the same. They were all inexplicably drawn to what they couldn't hope to ever conquer, and in their quest to conquer; they inadvertently submitted to being conquered themselves. Bulma would be no different; it was obvious that she was already quite drawn to him.

Once you gave a woman a little bit of attention and then suddenly withdrew it; they'd lose their mind. It was like it was just too much for their female psychology to handle, and they'd keep coming back for more. It never failed. The blue haired woman would fall for him, (they always do), he'd simply discard her once he got bored, (he always did), and then he'd leave her and her weakling to try to pick up the pieces of each other's broken hearts. This was all just a vengeful little game to Vegeta, and he had no doubt that by the end of it, the two humans would have learned their place.

As Bulma was brushing her teeth that night getting ready for bed, her thoughts kept going back to her Saiyan houseguest; she was still surprised that he had agreed to help her out that day. It was actually a pretty nice thing for him to do, and she hadn't thought that Vegeta could even _do_ nice. Bulma began to formulate an idea. She wouldn't say that Vegeta was a part of the gang just yet, but he hadn't tried to kill them all and he was fighting on their side so, as far as she was concerned he was well on his way becoming one of them. Heck, half the gang used to bad guys; now they were all good guys and friends more or less. She thought of Oolong, Piccolo, Tien, and Yamcha. If it could happen with them, then it could happen with Vegeta too, right? Bulma didn't see any reason why not.

She finished brushing her teeth and climbed into bed, setting her alarm before she settled in for the night. He just needed for someone to care about him, she realized, like with Gohan and Piccolo. Piccolo was hell bent on destroying Goku, but the love and friendship of little Gohan caused him to have a change of heart. Sometimes people just needed someone to be nice to them, and to be their friend. Before Bulma drifted off to sleep that night she decided that _she _would be nice to Vegeta, _she_ would be his friend.

**AN: Sorry this chapter is so short but it just felt right, you know? So, Vegeta has begun to put his plan into action and it seems to be working, but now Bulma has plan of her own. And let's not forget about Yamcha, he's got plan in there too somewhere. Gosh what next, will Puar devise some sort of scheme as well?! Lol jk. I have so much planned for this story! Review!**

**P.S. by a show of hands, how many of you thought Vegeta was going to ravish Bulma right there on the lab floor? *laughs evilly !**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I wasn't going to tell you guys this, but I actually do sort of own DBZ *nose begins to grow* It's just a small portion of it that I own, nothing major really *nose keeps getting longer* Okay, okay! I don't own it at all *hangs head in shame*

**Chapter Five**

Whenever Yamcha wasn't at baseball practice, he monopolized nearly all of Bulma's spare time, often disregarding his training altogether. Vegeta thought it was just as well that Yamcha didn't train; it wasn't like he was going to last five minutes against the androids anyway. He also wasn't at all perturbed by the fact that he was spending so much time with Bulma. It didn't matter to him how much the human suffocated her with his presence; he was still going to appropriate his woman, but he had no intention of neglecting his training or constantly seeking out the woman as Yamcha did. Vegeta was a master tactician; he knew how to use any situation to his advantage and exploit even the minutest window of opportunity. He would simply bide his time.

The Prince was heaving and twitching fitfully in his bed one night as his slumber was being tormented by a nightmare. It was always the same nightmare every time; the one with Kakarot and the mysterious purple haired boy mocking him with their ascension, and him desperately trying to catch up to them but to no avail. Vegeta sat up in bed covered in a sheen of cold sweat, his fists gripping the sheets in anger. He glanced at the red LED numerals illuminating in the darkness from his nightstand. 4:03 am. Vegeta sprang out of bed and stomped over to his dresser, flinging open one of the drawers and hastily exchanging his boxers for spandex shorts, then he sat down on the edge of his bed to put on his socks and sneakers.

He had to train, he had to ascend. He would not be mocked by some third class clown who knew nothing about what it meant to be a Saiyan, and that boy was no Saiyan either, he was sure of it! Yet, he had the same golden hair and teal eyes of the Legendary. Vegeta couldn't figure it out but the nightmares were slowly driving him mad. Almost every night Kakarot and that boy taunted him, well no more. They had stolen his destiny and he was going to take it back, he was the Prince of all Saiyans and it was his destiny to be the most powerful Saiyan in the universe. He would push himself to his limit and beyond, whatever it took, he would ascend and then he would show them all a REAL Super Saiyan.

Vegeta trained through breakfast and lunch ignoring his body screaming at him for rest and nourishment. The toll of training so strenuously for so long on an empty stomach was bearing down upon him, it took a monumental effort just to remain in the air under the oppressive force of the gravity but he just kept going. Even as it became overwhelmingly difficult for him to evade the rebounding energy attacks of the sparring bots, he refused to let up on himself. His arms and torso were littered with lacerations from where he had been hit by beams that he was not quick enough to dodge in his fatigued state.

As the Prince was hunched over panting for air, dripping sweat and blood onto the floor of the GR and struggling to stay on his feet; there was a blast of energy heading straight for him. Vegeta threw his hand out in front of him and quickly produced a beam of energy of his own to meet it. Sweat was pouring profusely down his battered body from the exertion of his tired muscles and the heat of the energy he was desperately trying to keep at bay. He screamed as he felt himself growing even weaker and was forced down to one knee. His jaw was clenched so tightly that his molars threatened to shatter as he concentrated every ounce of his being on trying to overtake the beam. Refusing to give up, he gathered the remaining dregs of his energy and focused it all into his attack, and with a tremendous roar he propelled the beam up and away from him, destroying two of the sparring bots and ripping a hole through the top the of the GR.

Vegeta sank down to both knees and collapsed forward onto the floor, already beginning to feel some relief from the strain of the high gravity due to the hole in the ceiling. After a moment the Prince dragged himself over to the center console and with great difficulty, managed to reach up and disengage the gravity. He collapsed back down to the floor, and it would be several minutes before he was able to summon the strength to stand up and drag his feet towards the house.

Bulma ran into Vegeta as she was coming downstairs, "Well look who finally decided to stop trying to kill themselves" she remarked condescendingly.

Vegeta just ignored her comment. "The gravity room is in need of repair" he said tiredly.

"And just how did you manage to break the gravity room Vegeta? What did you do to it this time?!" Bulma exploded at him.

"Never mind what happened Woman, just fix the damn thing!" he exploded right back at her.

"Why don't you try asking me nicely for a change!"

The Prince just scoffed at the woman, 'To hell with her, I'll just get the old man to fix it', he thought, as he continued his way upstairs to go shower.

"Oh, and Veggie!" Bulma called after him, "If you're thinking about getting Dad to fix it, he's been _awfully_ busy lately so it might take him a while. It could take _weeks_" she said while pretending to examine her impeccably lacquered pink nails.

Vegeta stopped in his tracks and growled, then he stomped the rest of the way to his room. He HATED that woman!

Bulma just stood there for a moment smugly watching him go, and then she sighed. "Well let's see what destruction he's managed to cause this time" she said, shaking her head as she went out outside. Her jaw nearly fell on the ground when she saw the big gaping hole in the top of the GR. "I'm gonna kill that stupid Saiyan" she growled, turning right back around to go inside and get a ladder so she could better assess the damage.

The heiress gave a low whistle as she peered down at the floor of the GR from atop her ladder. There were charred bits of ceiling on the floor, the scattered remains of the sparring bots, and smears of blood here and there. She didn't know how Vegeta did it, how he punished himself like that, or _why_ he did it for that matter. She knew he was training for the androids of course, but it seemed like there was something more. Bulma thought about Vegeta's first accident in the GR when he had completely blown it up, almost killing himself in the process. She remembered how he was having a nightmare when he was unconscious, and kept muttering something about beating Goku. 'Why?' She wondered. 'Why was it so important for him to be stronger than Goku?'

Turning her attention back to the hole in the ceiling, she determined what she would need to do about it. "Hmm, it'll be no sweat for me to patch up the hole but that only takes care of the problem of using the gravity feature again, it wouldn't be suitable for space travel. Looks like I'll have to build another capsule soon" she concluded. As she went to step back down the ladder she misjudged the distance between the rungs and her foot slipped. Bulma screamed as she plummeted toward the ground.

Vegeta was in the kitchen freshly showered and in a clean black tank and dark blue jeans. He was decimating an enormous spread of food when he suddenly stopped and craned his neck in the direction he thought he'd heard a noise coming from. He went outside to investigate and it didn't take him long to find Bulma writhing around in pain in the grass beside the GR. He saw the ladder leaning up against the GR and immediately put two and two together. The Prince just smirked, he wanted to laugh in her face and mercilessly berate her for injuring herself in such an idiotic fashion, but he decided against it. This would be a good opportunity for the woman to see him as being…_helpful._

"Vegeta! My leg feels like it's broken!" Bulma wailed.

Vegeta knelt down to the woman and briefly examined her leg, "That's because it is" he informed her.

"Oh no, now I'm going to be stuck wearing a big tacky cast on my leg" she whined, and then was startled when she was suddenly scooped up from the ground. She stiffened at first, and then relaxed in the Prince's arms looking up at him in awe.

"Where is the medical facility Woman?" was all he said.

Vegeta was leaning against the wall of the examination room while a doctor treated Bulma's leg. He wasn't concerned about the woman's welfare or anything, he was simply curious about the methods in which earthlings healed themselves, and he wanted to find out what this 'cast' business was that the woman kept going on about. He was observing the procedure in boredom, when he heard the doctor tell Bulma that she would have to wear the cast for about six weeks. Vegeta jolted away from the wall in shock. Six weeks? He needed the woman to fix the damn GR so he could train, he couldn't wait six weeks! He scowled and silently exited the room.

"Hey Vegeta, you wanna be the first to sign my c-", Bulma looked up and saw that the Prince was gone. "Ugh! I hate it when he does that!" she growled.

Vegeta was back in the kitchen in heavy rumination as he finished his meal. He needed that GR fixed and unfortunately, the woman wasn't bluffing when she said her father wouldn't be able to fix it immediately. The old man was hardly around these days, there was no telling when he'd get around to fixing it. He still couldn't believe that it was going to take six weeks for the woman to heal from such a minor injury. He could heal naturally from an injury like that in less than half that time, not to mention a regeneration tank could heal it in about 15 minutes. But the earthlings did not have regeneration tanks.

Vegeta continued to sit there chewing his food thoughtfully, his mind systematically diagnosing every potential solution to his current dilemma, when he suddenly he stopped in mid-chew. Of course! Why didn't he think of it before? He had come up with the perfect plan to not only get the GR up and running sooner, but to also make some headway on the little wager he had going with the Weakling. Besides, since he couldn't really train at the moment like he wanted to, he had time to take a little trip. Once all his food was gone, he went outside and paused to deliberate a moment longer. 'But who?' he wondered, "Not any of those idiots" he thought aloud. Finally arriving at a decision, Vegeta took to the air and attempted to hone in on a specific energy signal.

Piccolo's eyes snapped open when he felt the energy coming toward him, and levitated back down to the rocky surface of the ground from his meditative position.

"Piccolo"

Piccolo growled. He hated it when the old fool invaded his mind.

"What do you want Kami?" He asked in irritation.

"Vegeta is on his way to you" Kami told him.

"What else are you going to tell me that I already know!" he barked at the voice in his head.

"He is coming to you for assistance; you must aid him in his quest" the voice continued.

"I'll decide what I must do, you got that?" Piccolo was losing his patience.

"The fate of the future depends upon it Piccolo, I trust you'll make the right decision" Kami said before he removed his presence from the younger Namek's mind.

Piccolo just crossed his arms and waited for the Saiyan's arrival.

A moment later, Vegeta landed in front of Piccolo and crossed his arms as well.

"What's your business here, Vegeta?" the Namek asked the Saiyan.

"Tell me where to find those Senzu beans"

Piccolo frowned and looked Vegeta up and down. "What do you need a Senzu bean for Vegeta? You look fine to me".

Vegeta growled low in his throat, he didn't appreciate being questioned by the Namek, but he knew that answering his questions was necessary for him to get what he came for.

"It's for the woman-, Bulma, she is injured and needs to heal quickly".

Piccolo's frown deepened. "Did Bulma send you?"

Vegeta growled a little louder this time. "No", he bit out.

The Namek pondered this for a while, was Vegeta actually doing something simply to help someone else? No, Piccolo quickly decided. Vegeta was not the type to do anything unless he was benefitting from it in some way. Something told him that the Saiyan was up to no good, but he couldn't figure out his angle. Vegeta hadn't hurt anyone since he came to live on Earth but he still didn't trust him. The Namek considered what Trunks had revealed to Goku about his parentage, Bulma and Vegeta were supposed to get together somehow, was that what Kami was referring to? Ultimately Piccolo decided that there was no harm in letting Vegeta have a Senzu bean, it wasn't like he could use it for evil and if he was planning to hurt people, Goku could easily stop him.

"There's a tower in the sky below Kami's Lookout; Korin's Tower. I'll show you how to get there" Piccolo said, finally giving in to Kami's wishes.

Yajirobe was leaning on the railing of Korin Tower with his hand cradling his face, staring out into the endless expanse of light blue sky.

"Man, it sure blows living up here" he griped, as his finger explored the inside of nose, "I wish I lived on the lookout, at least they have better food there". He flicked a booger away and continued to stare out into nothing. Then his worst nightmare suddenly materialized right in front of him.

"Vegeta!" Yajirobe yelped, and fell down on his butt.

Vegeta just descended into the tower and sneered down at the fat man, who was scurrying backwards trying to get away from him.

"Look man if this is about your tail, uh, it was Goku's idea! Goku made me do it!" Yajirobe frantically pleaded.

Korin finally walked up to the scene at this point. He knew Vegeta was coming he'd had a conversation with Kami as well. Yajirobe quickly sought refuge behind Korin, attempting to conceal his hefty body behind the cat's much smaller frame.

"What can I do for you Vegeta?" Korin asked neutrally.

"Bulma requires a Senzu bean" Vegeta stated, assuming that the cat was Korin.

Korin produced a little brown pouch and extended it to the Saiyan, "Give Bulma my best" he said.

Vegeta looked at Korin suspiciously at how easily he handed it over, and opened the pouch to see that it contained two Senzu beans. The prince closed the pouch and left without another word.

Yajirobe peeked out from behind Korin, "Is he gone?" he inquired anxiously.

The immortal cat just shook his head at the cowardly samurai.

**AN: I'm not sure about this chapter...it sounded a lot better in my head lol REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: [insert clever statement about how I don't own DBZ here].

**Chapter Six**

Bulma's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, and the tip of her tongue was protruding out of the side of her mouth as she focused on her goal with single-minded intensity. Standing up on the tippy toes of her good leg, she extended her arm up as far as she could, "Almost there, just a little bit further" she said to herself encouragingly, but the bag of chips on the top shelf of the pantry was still just out of her reach. Bulma lowered herself back down and sighed, looking down at her cast bound right leg and her shiny new crutches leaning up against the wall beside the pantry.

She could have just called her mother to get the chips down for her, but she was more than capable of doing it herself because not only was she absolutely gorgeous, she was also a genius. She had used her brilliant brain to resolve far more complicated scenarios, often inventing ingenious devices above anyone else's mental capacity on the spot, or simply relying on her cunning and wit to overcome the odds against her. So, a mere broken leg wasn't going to stop Bulma Brief from getting a silly bag of chips and she intended to prove it.

This time Bulma grabbed one of the crutches from the wall and tucked it under her left arm, then reaching her right arm up again, she hopped up and down on her left leg launching herself upward towards the bright yellow bag of chips. It was working; she almost grabbed it that time, 'One more good jump should do it', she thought triumphantly as she propelled off of her left foot once more, this time managing to snag her prize.

But her victory was short lived as the tip of her crutch skewed as she landed causing her to lose her balance. She flung her arms about wildly trying to grab hold of something to prevent her imminent fall, but only succeeded in taking out a whole row of spices and boxes of dry pasta before she landed on her bottom, on the floor of the pantry amidst the mess she created. Bulma snatched up the yellow bag of chips peeking out from amongst the chaos and threw it up above her head in despair. "Why me?" she moaned.

Vegeta was standing in the kitchen doorway the entire time watching Bulma's plight in amusement. He deemed it a small miracle that she was ever able to survive Namek considering her obvious ineptitude, and decided that he would now make the woman aware of his presence since she appeared to be quite finished making a spectacle of herself. Removing one of the Senzu beans from the little brown pouch and tucking the rest into his jeans pocket, he strode over to the woman still sitting on the pantry floor dejectedly.

Bulma looked up when she heard him approaching, and her cheeks automatically flushed at the thought of him witnessing her embarrassing failure moments ago. She hoped against hope that he was only arriving after the fact. The Prince, once again passing up on a ripe opportunity to belittle her for her clumsiness, stopped in front of Bulma and extended the bean down to her. She looked from the bean to Vegeta and back to the bean again. Was that what she thought it was? Did he really go get a Senzu bean just for her?

Bulma felt a range of mixed emotions from astonishment, confusion, appreciation, and joy as she took the bean from his hand and ate it, instantly feeling its mystical healing properties take effect. The heiress swiftly sprang up from her position from the floor, "Wow, I feel good as new! Now I can ditch this stupid cast!" she exclaimed, completely caught up in the elation of her revitalized mobility. As Bulma was giddily hopping from leg to leg, Vegeta just grunted and walked away from her little celebratory scene.

"Hey, wait up Vegeta!" Bulma called after him when she realized that she was alone, and followed him out of the kitchen. Vegeta stopped walking but did not turn around, only slightly inclining his head to the right in acknowledgement. Bulma took a few more steps toward the Prince and paused as she remembered that there was a question that had been nagging at her mind since the ladder incident earlier that day."Vegeta, I was wondering…well, you're always training so hard, sometimes almost even to the point of suicide. What's the real reason you do it?" she asked sincerely.

Vegeta scowled at the unexpected inquiry, what concern was it of hers? He was silent for a long moment and Bulma was beginning to think that he would not answer, when he finally spoke. "The Legendary Super Saiyan transformation is the pinnacle of Saiyan power and the greatest in the universe. I won't stop until I have achieved it" the Prince curtly replied.

Bulma mulled over his response for a second. She knew what a Super Saiyan was, well sort of; she knew that that's what Goku and the mystery boy who defeated Frieza were. The heiress nodded to herself, although her information about the matter was very limited she somewhat understood and decided not to pry any further into it, at least for the time being. At her silence, Vegeta assumed that she had nothing more to say and started to walk away from her once more, but this time Bulma gently caught him by the arm halting his second attempt at retreat. He exhaled quietly in annoyance, what the hell did the woman want now?

Bulma had been so busy reveling in her speedy recovery and satisfying her curiosity, that she had forgotten one very important thing that should have been said from the start. She walked around Vegeta until she was standing face to face with him and looked down at her shoes for a moment as she stood before him suddenly overcome with a wave of shyness, but before she lost her nerve she quickly threw her arms around the Prince's neck in an embrace.

"Thanks for getting me that Senzu bean Vegeta, you're a lifesaver" she said softly next to his ear.

Vegeta just stood there with his arms hanging awkwardly at his sides in disconcertion. He had anticipated the woman would offer him her gratitude, foolishly believing he'd gotten the bean for her benefit, but he had not expected this. The Prince knew what a hug was of course, but he had never given nor been on the receiving end of one. It was simply not done in Saiyan culture, the equivalent being a succinct nod or hand gesture of approval. And as one of Freiza's most feared and hated soldiers no one had ever dared to hug him, and if they had tried it he would have blasted them into oblivion. He was The Dark Prince, a Demon of Death, Destroyer of Worlds, Evil Incarnate; not a _hugger_.

As the Saiyan experienced a hug for the first time in his reprehensible life he began to feel a growing unease within himself, an emotional discomfort that disrupted his normally unwavering guard. He didn't like it. In fact, he was just about to push the woman off of him when from over her shoulder, he spied Yamcha coming in through the front door, followed by his feline sidekick, with his baseball duffle in hand having just come back from practice. Vegeta smirked and returning to form, he immediately wrapped his arms around Bulma and pulled her body flush against his.

Yamcha stood frozen in the doorway with his hand still gripping the doorknob, staring in confusion at the sight before him. The last thing he expected to see when he walked through the door was the woman he loved, _his _woman, in the arms of his villainous rival. What was going on? Why was that creep holding his girlfriend like that? And more importantly, why was she letting him? Yamcha looked on in disbelief; his brain initially refusing to comprehend what he was seeing but as recognition slowly began to set in, his perplexity was superseded by mounting displeasure.

Bulma gasped in surprise, she had already accepted before she decided to embrace the prickly Saiyan that he would surely not reciprocate it. Maybe it was just the shock of him doing so, but his answering embrace sparked an acceleration of her heart rate. She began to lose all awareness of her surroundings as she was caught up in the sensation of his body pressed against her own. Unable to help herself, she took advantage of their close proximity, leaning her head towards the Prince's neck and breathing him in. She closed her eyes as she inhaled deeply, his tawny skin had a clean light citrusy scent to it mixed in with the fragrances of nature that he'd picked up from the wind. She could faintly smell fresh cut grass and maple trees on him, and she thought she could even smell the salty spray of the sea's wind-swept waves.

She raised her head slightly and scented his deep mahogany flame of hair as well. He was certainly putting that shampoo she put in his bathroom to good use. Eyes still closed she leaned in closer, taking in the earthy smell of his mane. She knew she had smelled the sea on him, the scent was a bit more prevalent in his hair and, she inhaled again, she could just make out the subtle hints of mint and lavender oil from the shampoo. As she continued to indulge in the mingling scents wafting through her nose, Bulma marveled at how the antisocial alien could have such an inviting aroma.

Vegeta could feel the woman's frenzied heartbeat reverberating against his own chest and he also noted that she seemed to be rather enjoying his scent. He locked eyes with Yamcha, relishing in the weakling's growing exacerbation. The Prince chuckled inwardly, but where were his manners? He had an audience to entertain and it would be rude of him not to put on a good show. Vegeta dragged his hands from the middle of Bulma's back, deliberately traveling downward at a leisurely pace until they stopped just dangerously close to her ample backside, which was well accentuated by the diminutive pair of khaki shorts she was wearing that clung to her curves like a second skin.

If at all possible he pulled Bulma even closer to him, his hands clutching the low dip of the small of her back even more tightly. Breaking eye contact with a very red faced Yamcha, Vegeta shifted his eyes down to the woman's buxom posterior, licking his lips salaciously as he unabashedly admired the titillating view. Vegeta finally lifted his gaze back up to Yamcha, grinning devilishly with an unmistakable challenge in his eyes daring the human to do something about it.

The Prince's provocative display was enough to push Yamcha over the edge of reason and past the point of fury, he felt like he might actually explode. He was not even aware that his ki was recklessly flaring around him; all he knew was that he'd had more than enough of Vegeta's taunting little production and he indeed WAS going to do something about it. Throwing his duffel bag down at his side, he angrily started towards the audacious Saiyan. He didn't care that Vegeta was stronger than him he was still going to go over there and kick his—

"No Yamcha!" Puar cried out fearfully.

Bulma broke from her reverie and whirled around to see Yamcha advancing toward them looking anything but pleased. She arched a brow, "What's going on Yamcha?" she asked cautiously. Yamcha came to an abrupt halt.

"_What's going on_?_!_" he responded in disbelief, "I was just about to ask you the same thing Bulma! What were you doing all over that jerk just now!" he accused, pointing an angry index finger at Vegeta, who was just standing behind Bulma with his arms crossed looking exceptionally smug. Bulma's hands shot to her hips, her blue eyes blazing.

"For your information YAMCHA, I was just thanking Vegeta for getting me a Senzu bean. If it wasn't for him, my leg would still be BROKEN, so he's not the one being a jerk right now YOU are" she informed him.

Yamcha blinked in confusion, momentarily forgetting his ire; Vegeta did WHAT? He glanced over at the Saiyan suspiciously, who in turn promptly flipped him the bird from behind Bulma's back. Yamcha's tantrum was instantly revived. "I don't care what that asshole did!" he yelled in Bulma's face.

Her eyes went wide for a second and then narrowed into angry slits. Bulma whipped out her own index finger and began her assault on Yamcha.

"OH, so you don't CARE that my LEG was BROKEN? Huh, Yamcha?" she demanded as she furiously dealt him a good poke in his chest with each overly emphasized word.

"I didn't-" Yamcha began retracting before Bulma cut him off.

"I suppose you would have just let me hobble around for WEEKS wearing this stupid cast!" she accused jabbing her finger down at her right leg for emphasis.

"No, I-" he started to insist.

"ANSWER ME YAMCHA!" Bulma Bellowed.

Vegeta was in the background laughing hysterically at the lover's quarrel, and holding his sides in delightful agony. The comicality of the situation was almost too much for him to bear, and the best part was that it was his own wicked doing.

Yamcha glared at the chortling Prince. This was all his fault. He'd done nothing wrong and he was getting his head bit off while that son of a bitch was over there laughing it up. He turned his attention back to his girlfriend, who he was quickly losing his patience with.

"Bulma" Yamcha said firmly, "you know I would have gotten you a Senzu bean too if I had been here, don't be stupid".

Bulma gasped loudly, oh so now she was stupid? "You know what Yamcha" she began in an almost civil tone, "If I'm so stupid, then how about you just LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!" she finished by screaming into his face before stomping awkwardly away in her leg cast towards the lab.

Yamcha pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He knew what that meant; he'd be getting the silent treatment for a while. Then he noticed the absence of mocking laughter and looked around and saw that only he and Puar were left in the room.

As much as Vegeta would have loved to stick around and gloat to the weakling, he had one other thing he had to take care of. As he entered the laboratory he found the woman there with her leg propped up on a chair, angrily hacking away at her cast with a box cutter. The Prince rolled his eyes; it was a good thing he got there before the idiot woman managed to impale herself. He walked over to Bulma and snatched the blade out of her hand.

"Hey!" she protested.

"Stand still Woman" Vegeta ordered, producing a very delicate beam of ki from his finger and neatly slicing the cast down the middle.

"Good going Vegeta" Bulma said, while prying the cast from her limb, "you sure are handy today" she remarked with an amiable wink.

"So Woman, when did you say your father will get around to fixing the gravity room again?" he inquired casually while toying with the box cutter still in his hand.

"Oh right the gravity room, I'd completely forgotten all about that. Don't worry, I'll go fix it right now for you, it's the least I can do" she said brightly.

Vegeta just gave a noncommittal grunt and handed the box cutter back to her exiting the lab. Once he closed the door behind him he allowed a self satisfied smirk to grace his features. He was quite pleased with himself; the GR was going to be repaired right away thanks to a little illusive hinting on his part, and the weakling getting bitched out by the woman as a result of his own instigation was just the icing on the cake. And to think, between him breaking the GR and then being faced with having to go without it, the day was shaping up to be a lousy one, but he'd turned it all around hadn't he.

**AN: Sorry this update took longer than usual you guys I just recently found time to write. And please note that the rating has changed to M, just thought I'd change it now rather than later:-) Anyway, that Vegeta is something else huh? Lol leave it to him to turn an innocent thank you hug into something dirty (OMG he's so HOT!) anybody starting to feel sorry for Yamcha yet? Haha is he just in over his head here or will he find a way to one-up our favorite Saiyan Prince? Idk you'll just have to stay tuned and REVIEW!**

**P.S. I know Bulma does have her slow moments sometimes, but I hope my readers don't think I'm making her TOO ditzy or whatever, it's just that you don't see very much of her in the story yet because right now it's mostly about the boys…and their egos;-)**


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: If I owned DBZ, Vegeta would have always gotten his way; he would have kept his tail, blew up Earth, got his wish on Namek, single handedly defeated Frieza and gone on to be an immortal Super Saiyan 5, terrorizing the universe until the end of time while Goku watched helplessly from Otherworld. OK, it's probably for the best that I don't own it.

**Chapter Seven**

Bulma attempted to focus her full attention on repairing the hole in the GR but she kept thinking about the argument she just had with Yamcha, which resulted in her becoming pissed off all over again. How dare he accuse her of being all over Vegeta? Over the course of their relationship, Yamcha hadn't exactly achieved the best track record in fidelity. There were plenty of times that she'd caught him mooning over other females when he thought she wasn't looking, and he had even gone out with a couple of girls behind her back too!

His philandering ways were the driving force behind many of the off periods in their on and off again relationship, and he had the nerve to get upset because she gave Vegeta a hug? A simple hug meant to show thanks? One small, measly, absolutely platonic hug? It was only a little short hug that, now that she thought about it, had it lasted five seconds or five minutes? Surely it couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds? After all, it was just was a very normal and very brief hug, a hug that…that seemed to ignite her blood.

But still, she had done nothing wrong. A hug could hardly be considered cheating regardless of how it made her feel, and just because she _felt_ something when she hugged him it did not mean that she had _feelings_ for Vegeta. She had just been a bit stunned by his reaction, was all it was. Bulma suspected that anyone who had ever encountered the ill-tempered Saiyan might experience all sorts of heart palpitations if they received a hug from him of all people.

She and Vegeta were just, well, she thought that they were sort of becoming friends. He had been…_different_ lately, he was still dark and aloof but she was really beginning to see some changes in him; changes for the better. She never would have thought that he would go out of his way to help her like he did today or hug her for that matter, but he had and it floored her. Vegeta was such a fascinating enigma to Bulma and she just wanted to get to know him better, what was the harm in that? It wasn't like anything was going to happen between them, she was with Yamcha and aside from some shameless flirting, she had never actually cheated on him and she wasn't going to start now.

Bulma loved Yamcha, no; she was _in love_ with Yamcha. He had been her first and only love and she was sure he'd be her last. They had been together more or less for over a decade, and no matter how many times she kicked his butt to the curb, she just couldn't see herself being with anyone else. Sure, their relationship wasn't perfect, but whose was? Though, she sometimes longed for the days when Yamcha used to have such an intense fear of women that she didn't ever have to worry about him straying.

But after Yamcha got wished back, he promised her that things would be different and that his previous indiscretions were a thing of the past. So far, he had been true to his word and Bulma felt that they were in a good place in their relationship now. He may not be the perfect boyfriend that she would have wished for, but he was still a good boyfriend. He always doted on her, buying her flowers and gifts just because and taking her out on romantic dates, and he always, always told her he loved her.

Although, it did get to be kind of monotonous at times but that was just because they had been together for so long, she assumed it would be hard for any couple to keep the passion alive for ten years, right? That didn't mean they loved each other any less, otherwise why would they still be together after all this time? Yamcha was the love of her life and he had always been there for her. She had something good and steady and sure, and she wasn't going to jeopardize it for something dark, mysterious, unpredictable and alluring, no matter how intoxicating it felt being in his arms or how damn good he smelled.

While the Prince of all Saiyans was outside becoming reacquainted with his beloved GR, the Briefs, Yamcha and Puar were convening for dinner. Bulma was the last to take her seat at the table and as she entered the kitchen, Mrs. Brief did a double take. Now, she wasn't the most observant woman, but she was quite certain that she'd seen her daughter sporting a leg cast earlier. Didn't Bulma tell her that she broke her leg in a horrible fall?

"Bulma honey, I thought you hurt your leg this afternoon?" Mrs. Briefs inquired in her usual cheerful manner while she put dinner on the table.

"Yeah mom, I did" Bulma confirmed, scooting up closer to the table in her chair. "I fell off my ladder while checking out Capsule 3 and broke my leg" she added filling in her father, who was looking up at her interestedly from his stack of paperwork beside his plate.

"That sounds awful Bulma, but how did you manage to recover so quickly?" Dr. Brief asked curiously.

Yamcha rolled his eyes in annoyance, 'Here it comes' he thought.

"Well, Vegeta came along and after he took me to the infirmary, he went and got me a Senzu bean" she paused, "Hmm, I'm a genius and I didn't even think of that" Bulma mused, "But thanks to him, I'm good as new".

Mrs. Brief sat the last of the food onto the table and squealed in delight with her hands clasped in front of her chest.

"Oh my, how wonderful!" she cried, "What a thoughtful young man that Vegeta is, isn't he dear?" she asked, turning towards her husband.

"Yes dear, the boy is very resourceful", Dr. Brief agreed not looking up from the documents he was perusing.

Yamcha was sitting at the end of the table sulking in his chair and attempting to ignore the Briefs conversation. It disgusted him that they were all talking about Vegeta like he was some kind of a do-gooder when he was nothing more than an evil, manipulative little bastard. He was just as evil as the day he arrived on Earth with that other big ugly Saiyan goon of his, he hadn't changed at all. Not that Yamcha didn't believe people could change, Sure they could, but he highly doubted that applied to Vegeta.

The only reason Vegeta assisted Goku and the gang on Namek was because he wasn't strong enough to fight his own battles, and the only reason that he stayed on Earth after that was because he wanted to be around when Goku got back, and he only continued to stick around so he could prove himself against the androids or whatever. Vegeta was just an opportunist, everything and everyone was just a means to an end with that guy, and Yamcha was sure that he didn't possess a single redeeming quality.

He sighed in relief when everyone finally stopped going on about Vegeta and reached for the soba dish in the middle of the table, only to have it yanked out of his reach by Bulma with uncharacteristic speed. Yamcha just sat there glaring at her as she scooped an obnoxiously large helping onto her plate, and then dealt the remainder onto her father's. Dr. Brief looked up from his work when he noticed the growing heap of noodles in front of him.

"Uh, Bulma, don't you think you should maybe save some for Yamcha?" he asked, looking at his plate in alarm.

"Oh no dad, Yamcha's just _fine_" she said haughtily and stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend with all the petulance of a four year old.

"Real mature Bulma" Yamcha grumbled under his breath over the injustice. Of course Bulma knew that soba noodles were his favorite and she was using that to spite him. Clearly she was still ticked off at him for earlier courtesy of Vegeta. Yamcha grabbed a dinner roll from the basket near him and snatched it in half with his teeth and chewed the bread sardonically. Bulma just turned her nose up at him and daintily started in on the huge pile of noodles that she and Yamcha both knew she wasn't going to finish.

Ordinarily Yamcha would have just dismissed her childish behavior, he was accustomed to it by now, but he wasn't going to let this one go, not this time, not when Vegeta was to blame for it. Ever since their bet was officialized, the degenerate alien had been masquerading as a Good Samaritan and attempting to act almost sociable. All of a sudden he'd taken to helping Bulma out; helping Bulma in the lab, helping Bulma with her leg, helping Bulma with a Senzu bean, oh, he was just Bulma's little _helper_ now apparently.

Well if pretending to be _nice_ was his big plan to get Bulma to fall for him, then he'd better just quit now. If Yamcha knew anything about Bulma, it was that she was a hopeless romantic. She loved romantic gestures, she _loved_ being spoiled and she thrived on displays of affection, especially when done in view of the public. She was one of those types who always dreamed of finding her Prince Charming and the whole fairytale romance deal, and like most women she wanted to be wooed and admired.

Vegeta may claim to be a prince but it was safe to say that he couldn't give or rather, wouldn't give her any of that, unlike Yamcha. The bottom line was that there was no way Bulma would ever go for someone who wouldn't express their love and adoration for her, which was surely what she would get with Vegeta. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out. So he really wasn't any competition at all and as a matter of fact, his little _good guy_ act was totally pathetic; as if that was going to get him anywhere. However, Yamcha was not as amused by the little stunt he pulled earlier, trying to make him look bad in front of Bulma.

While Vegeta assuredly wasn't going to have any success in taking his girl, he sure had been successful in getting under his skin. Competition or not, seeing that scum with his hands all over Bulma like that hadn't sat well with him at all. Vegeta probably thought he was so clever getting him all worked up like that, but he was pretty smart too, and he was going to find a way to get back at him. Vegeta may be more powerful than him, but he sure as hell wasn't going to take any of his crap lying down.

Vegeta was wandering the dimly lit halls of Capsule Corp., wearing only a loose fitting pair of lounging pants. The hardwood floor was icy beneath his bare feet and he was surrounded by a quietness that only the nighttime could offer. There was not a sound to be heard save for the unimposing ticks of the grandfather clock on the wall, and the gentle expulsion of cool air from the AC vents overhead and below. He strolled smoothly towards the end of the hallway and paused when he reached the upstairs landing of the second floor. It had been his intention to proceed downstairs, but his acute senses picked up on an imperceptible change in the air.

His instincts urged him to seek out the source of this new ambience, so he continued down the hall until he was standing at the foot of the stairway leading up to the third floor. As he peered up at it he began to see coils of an ethereal mist undulating about the stairs, coaxing him to follow after it. Enchanted by the winding vapor, he ascended the stairs determined to find out where it was coming from. He reached the third floor and stepped into the darkened hallway, just barely about to make out where the mist was leading him.

It led him about midway down the hall to a door on the left that was slightly ajar. The woman's room. Having located the origin of the curious vapor, he was about to turn away from the door when he heard a faint giggle coming from behind it. He suddenly decided that he also had to discover what it was that she found so amusing. Pushing open the door, he entered the unlit room and walked towards the only source of light emitting from an open door inside. When he reached the doorway, he was enveloped by a sweet smelling steam and the woman was there immersed in a rich bubble bath, smiling up at him. Had she been expecting him?

As if incited by his presence, she rose up from her bath and the shimmering lather clung to her milky skin, caressing her most intimate areas like effervescent undergarments. She stepped out of the tub and sashayed past him out into the dark bedroom and he watched her from behind, her path illuminated by the light of the open bathroom door. Her damp tendrils of teal hair extended almost all the way down to her bath foam clad bottom. She stopped when she reached her bed and turned around to beckon him forward with a 'come hither' motion of her finger. It was like his legs had been unable to move before he received that signal. He started carefully towards her.

The woman sat down on the bed and lay down on her back with her knees up, seductively twirling a lock of hair around her finger as she waited for his approach. When he arrived at her bedside, she parted her creamy thighs for him and while he was anticipating a more thorough glimpse of her, her delicate womanhood was artfully concealed by the suds from her bubble bath. He mentally cursed those infernal bubbles. The blue eyed beauty just giggled up at him, as though she had somehow been privy to his thoughts, and closed her eyes expectantly. He joined her on the bed and nestled himself in between her legs with his body hovering just above her; then he closed his own eyes and slowly descended his face to hers. He felt her warm breath whispering over his lips right before he captured her lips in his own and—

Vegeta abruptly awakened and hauled himself up into a sitting position. He rubbed at his eyes trying to regain his bearings and scanned his dark surroundings to be sure that he was in his own room, in his own bed. It had just been a dream. This realization assuaged the Prince and concurrently left him in a state of discontent. Vegeta looked down at his lap and growled, how the hell had the woman managed to worm her way into his subconscious? He would have sooner welcomed his recurring nightmare of Kakarott and that kid.

While the woman admittedly was physically appealing, that was no reason for him to be dreaming about her. Vegeta sat on his bed scowling to himself pensively until his brain was able to produce a logical explanation. Before long the answer came to him and he now understood, surely he only dreamed of her because his interactions with her had been more frequent and their proximity to one another much closer as of late. Such as today when he had held her close to him and they were pelvis to pelvis, with her soft, copious bosom straining against his chest. So close that her scent had rubbed off on him, she smelled just like those damn strawberries she was so fond of.

Vegeta shook his head angrily, he wasn't even making sense! He had been intimate with scores of women all across the galaxies and never had a single dream about any of them, so why Bulma? And he hadn't even bedded her. Then it suddenly dawned upon Vegeta and he was certain this time that he had figured it out, it was so obvious to him now. He hadn't had a woman in quite some time, it had been over two years actually, so it made sense that he would fantasize about Bulma since she was the only desirable female in the vicinity.

The Prince was so relieved to be thinking rationally once more and was satisfied that he had finally come to a viable conclusion. He also concluded that it was probably in his best interest to try and end the bet as soon as possible. Once it was over and he had yet again proven himself superior to the weakling, he could go back to having very limited interaction with the female, thus eliminating any chance of her invading his dreams again. Vegeta glanced at his alarm clock and groaned at the hour on the display. 2:00 am. But he dragged himself out of bed anyway and ambled into the bathroom to take a shower. A cold one.

**AN: Gotta love a good dream sequence haha;-) *whistles innocently **


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Don't own it, and honestly don't want to. Well, maybe just Vegeta. I'd own him alll night long… and some mornings too;-)

**Chapter Eight**

"What a gorgeous day for a picnic!" Mrs. Brief chirped as she removed a cherry pie from the oven and sat it down next to the others. All of the food was now done and with time to spare; it was only 1:00 pm, plenty of time to get everything loaded up into the capsule jet and set up at the park. She had been up since 6:00 am making all the food preparations for the family picnic she had planned for that afternoon at 1:30 pm. It was going to be a small get together of her family plus five of her closest friends and their families.

While the grounds of Capsule Corporation would have been adequate accommodation for the event, Mrs. Brief thought it would be just lovely if they had it at West City Park instead. To her, and to many others she was sure, it was one the most beautiful places in the city. West City Park was quite scenic with its impressive variety of flowers and foliage, and it was an especially good locale for viewing Sakura trees in the springtime. She used to love visiting the park when she was a little girl, mainly because she was so enamored with the flora. It was what inspired her to start growing flowers of her own, and from that inspiration was born a love of gardening.

Mrs. Brief hardly had time to get out to the park these days but she thought this picnic couldn't be a more perfect excuse to go. They could spread their blankets out on the lawn beside the massive lake that ran parallel to a stunning view of the city's skyscrapers, and the children would have plenty of space to run around or go play on the park's elaborate playground while the adults chatted about the goings on of their daily lives. And, it was a Sunday so all the park performers (locals) would be out singing, dancing, beating on their drums, and wearing flamboyant attire. It was sure to be a fun day; she just hoped she had enough food made.

She took off her apron and did a quick inventory of the picnic feast. Pies; 2 cherry, 2 apple, and 2 chocolate cream. Muffins; lemon raspberry, blueberry, and cinnamon sugar, a dozen each. Sandwiches; 25 turkey, bacon and avocado, 25 roast beef, lettuce, tomato and bleu cheese. 50 fried pork dumplings, potato salad, 50 rolls of sushi (salmon), 48 deviled eggs, a gigantic fruit salad and, "Can't forget the lemonade!" Mrs. Brief said giggling. Today was going to be so wonderful, she just knew it.

Yamcha was flying through the air towards Capsule Corp. not even half listening to Puar's appeals for him to take his training more seriously, or her attempts to dissuade him from continuing his ongoing feud with Vegeta. Puar was so worried for her best friend, how was he ever supposed to be ready for the androids if he never trained? At this rate, they'll kill him! Well, if Vegeta didn't kill him first. She didn't understand why Yamcha was so determined to be on the bad side of that terrible man. She on the other hand had the good sense to stay off his radar completely and she wished Yamcha would do the same.

But no, Yamcha was doing the exact opposite. For days he had been plotting against Vegeta, trying to think of ways to exact revenge on him and it was all he talked about now. He had even tried to enlist her help in coming up with an appropriate act of vengeance, but Puar refused to be a part of it. Back in their desert bandit days she would have been on board with whatever wily scheme her partner in crime cooked up, but things were different now. _They_ were different now. It just didn't seem right and this whole thing with Vegeta made her terribly nervous.

She tried and tried to talk him out of it, but Yamcha could hardly be talked out of anything once his confidence (arrogance) came into play, and in such cases he seldom knew when to quit until it was much too late. Puar would have her friend's back as she always did, and also continue to be the voice of reason but she already knew that he would stubbornly see this thing through till the end. She just wasn't sure the end would be a happy one. Yamcha seemed pretty sure though. He had no doubt the outcome would be in his favor and he repeatedly assured her that he knew what he was doing, (he always says that), and that she worried too much, (well she was a bit of a worry wart), and that everything would be fine. Puar sure hoped so.

So far, to his embitterment, Yamcha hadn't been successful in devising a fitting plan to pay Vegeta back in kind. The ideas he came up with were never clever enough and no moment was ever opportune enough. He couldn't afford to hold off on his revenge much longer though, not with the way things were going. It had been nearly a week since the Senzu bean incident that Vegeta's treachery had gone unanswered, and in that approximate week it seemed that Bulma could never shut up about him. She would find any excuse to inject him into almost _any_ conversation and whenever Yamcha complained about it, she told him to stop overreacting and insisted that she did it neither on purpose or nearly as often as he claimed. It was beyond maddening.

But the absolute worst occasion had to be the time he and Bulma were curled up on the living room couch together in front of the TV. Yamcha had his arm around her and she was nestled into his side as he was flipping through the channels with the remote. After a while Yamcha gave up trying to find something suitable to watch and settled on a program that was in commercial. It was when a commercial for mustard came on the screen that Bulma suddenly started giggling.

"What's up Bulma?" Yamcha asked curiously.

"Nothing, it's nothing" she replied in between giggles.

"Oh come on, spit it out I could use a good laugh" Yamcha pressed, to his later regret.

"OK well", she paused to giggle some more, "I was in the kitchen today trying to get a brand new jar of mustard open and no matter what I did", she giggled again, "the thing just would NOT open!". More giggles.

Yamcha's interest began to wane. 'Where is she going with this?' he wondered.

"So", she continued, "Mom came over and tried to open it and SHE couldn't open it, then Dad came in and HE couldn't open it," Bulma snickered, "Then", more giggles, "So then", giggle giggle.

Yamcha's expression was staling at this point and his eyes were beginning to glaze over.

"VEGETA", Bulma finally got out, "came along and popped it right open after we all had been trying for like **15 minutes!**" she finished, no longer giggling but thoroughly cracking up as if it had been the single most amusing scenario to date.

At Vegeta's name, Yamcha's eyes instantly flickered back to life and by the time she concluded her underwhelming anecdote he was by all accounts, pretty peeved. He just sat there boring holes into Bulma with his bitter gaze while she was obliviously throwing her head back in mirth, an action that was irritating him more and more by the second. He gritted his teeth and unconsciously clenched his fists until a loud crack abruptly resounded in the room. At the sharp noise, Bulma's laughter stopped and she looked at Yamcha in confusion. Then she looked down at his hand.

"Jeez Yamcha! Did you have to go and break the remote?" She exclaimed.

He didn't respond he just hastily rose from the couch, cast the shattered remote control aside and stomped away from her. He had been in no mood to have yet another waste of breath exchange about Bulma's tendency to bring Vegeta into everything, or to listen to her deny it.

Up in the clouds Yamcha scowled at the unpleasant memory. He was getting so sick of hearing about Vegeta. Every time he returned to Capsule Corp. from practice it was always something about him or something he did. He didn't know which was more frustrating; the fact that the _something _was always particularly unremarkable yet Bulma all but raved about it, or the fact that while Vegeta was making _slightly _more of an effort than usual in the realm of conversation, he still practically ignored her! He literally made almost no attempt to capture Bulma's attention, yet he ensnared it with ease.

Yamcha couldn't figure out how Vegeta did it and he didn't really know what to think. He might have thought there was something going on between the two of them but Bulma's interest in Vegeta didn't seem romantically inclined. By all outside appearances she was just being friendly with him, but definitely friendlier than usual in his opinion. From what he saw, Bulma treated him like he was a good friend of hers or something, which was absurd since it was Vegeta. That was just what he saw though, who knows what went on when he wasn't around? And it wasn't like he could hang around Capsule Corp. all day trying to find out. He actually had a job unlike SOME freeloading height challenged lowlifes. So no, he couldn't do that.

But what he _could_ do was expose Vegeta for what he truly was. Yamcha hated how much attention his girlfriend gave Vegeta and how much she talked about him for that matter, but he didn't seriously think she was two-timing him; if that was the case then he would just know. But it was clear that she was falling for Vegeta's deception. Yamcha's strategy in the beginning was to let Bulma see for herself that the Saiyan was positively incorrigible and ultimately undesirable, causing her appreciate him and their relationship even more. Then of course she'd let go of her current fascination with Vegeta and he would move out of Capsule Corp. as per the condition of the bet, then things would go back to the way they were before. Just the two of them.

He hadn't counted on Vegeta playing the good guy and making HIM look bad. Vegeta's devious tactic wasn't going to win the bet for him of course, but it did complicate things. Yamcha didn't want this little competition to be dragged out for too long, the sooner Vegeta was gone the better, but that could be slightly difficult with Bulma believing that he was actually a decent person of all things. Did Bulma really think that Vegeta could change just like that? That he was no longer a villain? That he had pulled a Piccolo? For a "genius" Bulma sure wasn't too bright sometimes. He was just going to have to set her straight and show her the REAL Vegeta. Yamcha was going to make HIM look bad, and this time _he'd_ be the one laughing. He couldn't wait to see the look on his face when that snake got what was coming to him. Well, as soon as he came up with a good plan.

"Hi Puar, hey there Yamcha, you have a good time playing baseball with your friends today?" Mrs. Brief greeted them when they came into the kitchen.

"Hi Mrs. Brief!" Puar sang in her shrilly voice.

"Hey Mrs. B" Yamcha returned a bit gloomily, his disappointment creeping into his voice. Why hadn't he thought of anything yet? He used to be so good at scheming. He shook his head at himself and reached for the sushi on the kitchen counter. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until now; he was so hungry he could eat a whole –

"Oh no dear! That's for the picnic!" Mrs. Brief cried out before he could get his hands on it.

Yamcha froze and blinked in surprise as he noticed for the first time the exorbitant amount of food crowding the table and counters, then he vaguely recalled Mrs. Brief saying something about a picnic earlier that morning. The bubbly blonde housewife stood beside Yamcha beaming at the fruits of her labor.

"Don't you just love picnics? It's going to be wonderful! Go ahead and get cleaned up while I go get Bulma so we can get the capsule jet ready" Mrs. Brief said in an excited rush and without waiting for a reply she scurried off to do just that, but no sooner than she had taken four steps she came to an abrupt halt and whirled back around to address Yamcha once more.

"Oh, and Yamcha dear, if you happen to see Vegeta make sure he doesn't eat up the food for the picnic, tell him I left something for him in the fridge, will you? Poor thing didn't come in for breakfast or lunch today" she expressed the latter statement with motherly concern before scuttling away again.

The right corner of Yamcha's mouth slowly began to draw upward and the left corner followed suit until he was sporting a categorically malignant smile and laughing insanely. "Oh, I'll tell him alright, don't you worry" he declared even though Mrs. Brief was long gone. Puar floated a safe distance away from her best friend and eyed him with concern. He was getting kind of creepy on her. Without warning Yamcha rounded on Puar and she flinched in fear, startled by the sudden acknowledgement.

"Hey Puar, could you take my duffle upstairs for me and wait for me there?" he asked rather politely.

"Um, OK Yamcha" Puar frowned at the odd request but she took the bag from him anyway and her elevation decreased dramatically as she struggled with the heavy thing.

Once Puar was gone Yamcha headed straight for the fridge, he knew she wouldn't approve of what he was about to do. It took him no time at all to find the food that Mrs. Brief was just referring to, especially since she put it all into one jumbo sized Tupperware container and labeled it 'VEGETA' with a smiley face. 'Perfect', Yamcha thought, and dumped all the food into the garbage disposal at once and let it rip. There was no way an average garbage disposal would have been able to handle all of that food at once but this was not your average garbage disposal, it was a top of the line industrial strength Capsule Corporation garbage disposal that was not yet available for public consumption. That baby could grind rocks into dust, pronto. He rinsed the sink out when it was done and tossed the Tupperware in the dishwasher. Then he waited.

"Come on Vegeta, show your ugly mug I know you're hungry" Yamcha remarked snidely to himself. He was starting to get a little anxious though; if Vegeta didn't show up before Mrs. Brief came back then everything would be ruined.

No sooner than he had spoken he heard the front door slam and Vegeta tramped into the house looking haggard, bruised, covered in sweat, minor cuts and decorated with little clumps of clotted blood; the usual. Except, his stomach was waging war against him as it usually did on the infrequent occasions he skipped one too many meals. He had woken up in the middle of the night afflicted by nightmares again and gone straight to the GR, but he did grab a bunch of bananas from the fruit basket on the kitchen counter on his way out. His so called breakfast though was hardly sufficient and after committing to his masochistic training routine for 10 hours nonstop, he hadn't the strength to deny his Saiyan appetite proper retribution any longer.

As soon as Yamcha heard Vegeta coming he sprang into action stuffing his face with sushi, muffins, eggs, whatever his hands landed on first. He hurriedly swallowed the contents in his mouth down and kept grabbing more trying to eat as much as possible before Vegeta reached the kitchen, and Yamcha managed to put a sizeable dent in the enormous quantity of food before he walked in.

When the Prince entered the kitchen, he was greeted by the sound of a loud belch and Yamcha was reclining in a chair with his cheeks bulging and numerous food particles littering the bottom portion of his face. 'What the hell?' Vegeta thought. Then he noticed all the delicious looking food surrounding him, there was so much of it...

"What is the meaning of this?" Vegeta demanded.

"Mrs. Brief got a little carried away with the food today, it sure is great" Yamcha told him through a mouth full of food, chunks of it were falling out with every other word he spoke. Vegeta wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Yamcha stood up from his chair and made a show of rubbing his belly, "Oh boy, I just can't eat anymore. I'm stuffed!" he announced and waddled past Vegeta out of the kitchen.

Vegeta eyed his departure disdainfully wondering why the fool was acting even more inane than usual. 'What the hell?' he thought for the second time. Mrs. Brief had never prepared a household meal to this much excess before, so why would she do so now? He stood there for a moment in deliberation until his stomach growled at him rather viciously. Vegeta growled right back at it in frustration. He didn't have time for this! He was ravenous and his energy was depleted, all he wanted was to be eating that food right now, not faced with the conundrum of whether or not he should even eat it!

Even so, he couldn't ignore his instincts alerting him that something was amiss, but at the same time his hunger pangs were also begging to be heard. Maybe he was just being paranoid and his suspicions were unfounded. He felt ridiculous having such a heated internal debate over food, why shouldn't he eat it? The weakling was just eating it so it must be acceptable for him to eat it as well. Yes, he was just creating a dilemma where there wasn't one and his hunger and exhaustion were contributing to his paranoia. He was going to stop this nonsense and deny himself nourishment no longer. He didn't move.

"Damn it all!" Vegeta growled and advanced toward the mouthwatering feast, but at the last second he stopped short and sighed. He could never just disregard a hunch, no matter how trivial. His gut feelings had served him well in his peril laden existence, preventing him from making a number of potentially devastating missteps. Unfortunately, he was now getting a feeling that he shouldn't partake of the tasty looking morsels just inches away from him. He shook his head a little trying to clear his brain that was throbbing insistently and hazy from lack of nutrition. Through the fog of hunger he reasoned that if for some unobservable reason eating the food was ill advised (but not for Yamcha apparently), then there had to be some other food around that he could eat.

Whenever he missed his usual meals the blonde woman always set it aside for him, he would just eat that instead and rid himself of this pesky sense of foreboding. Vegeta chided his sluggish mind for not thinking of that in the first place and headed for the refrigerator. He yanked open the door and peered inside but it was practically bare. He set his sights on the oven next, yanking its door open as well. It was empty. 'What the hell?' Vegeta thought yet again. Damn his intuition! He could have been satiated by now instead of standing around looking foolish. Obviously it was there for him to consume as there were no other alternatives he concluded irritably. But as annoyed as he was with himself he couldn't help but to acknowledge that in over 30 years, his instincts had **never** been wrong. Perhaps there really was a first time for everything? Vegeta eyed the food warily.

**AN: DON'T EAT IT VEGETA! Haha. Will he eat it? Or will Mrs. Brief return in time to stop him? Or will he check the dishwasher next & see his name on the Tupperware? Or maybe he will just stand there & pass out from hunger?! lol REVIEW;-)**


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I have several possessions, DBZ isn't one of them.

**Chapter Nine**

Mrs. Brief exited out of her daughter's room and headed back downstairs towards the kitchen. Bulma told her that she'd be right along as soon as she found her other shoe that was presumably located somewhere in her dangerously cluttered walk-in closet. Mrs. Brief checked her watch when she reached the second floor landing and quickened her pace; it was after 1:30. "I must have been chatting with Bulma for longer than I thought" she realized, giggling to herself. She had, had every intention of making it to the park on time but she was officially going to be late now. It was really no surprise as, despite her best efforts, she always ended up being late to everything. Since all her friends and family were well aware by now that punctuality was a strength well removed from her, she knew that none of them would hold it against her. Besides, she figured that all the goodies she'd lovingly prepared for the picnic that day would more than make up for it. The happy housewife smiled to herself.

Mrs. Brief reached the kitchen and hastily bustled inside nearly smacking right into Vegeta. She giggled up at the prince, "Oh sorry Vegeta, I was in such a rush to get things ready for the…" her sentence trailed off as her gaze slid past him and she noticed that her kitchen had gone through a few changes while she was away. A tiny gasp escaped her now O-shaped mouth as she looked around in surprise. If Vegeta noticed Mrs. Brief's stupefaction at all he gave no reaction to it and merely stepped around the woman to continue on in the direction he was headed. He was worn out and filthy, plus he had developed a rather nasty headache on top of some intense stomach cramps from persevering so many hours in the GR with a barren stomach. Needless to say, the Prince of all Saiyans was exceptionally moody and had no care for anything other than a hot shower, followed by a lengthy nap. Unfortunately for Vegeta, while he was able to bypass the blonde woman, as soon as he made it to the kitchen doorway his path was effectively blocked by yet another obstacle, except this one's hair was blue.

Bulma came around the corner of the kitchen doorway frowning down at her wristwatch noting that the picnic her mother planned was supposed have started 10 minutes ago. 'No surprised there', Bulma thought right before she collided with what felt like solid marble. "Ouch!" the heiress yelped rubbing at her nose and looked up to find herself face to face with a very irritated looking Saiyan, and then she noticed her mother in the background standing in the middle of the kitchen in awe. Bulma tilted her head in confusion as she too took in the current state of the kitchen. Vegeta glared threateningly at the woman standing in front of him right inside the narrow doorway. He would have simply evaded her as well but there wasn't enough space for him to do that unless he resorted to just shoving her out of the damn way; an idea that was terribly attractive to him at the moment.

'What the heck happened here?' Bulma wondered as she looked around. Her mother had just been upstairs in her bedroom talking her ear off about how excited she was for the picnic and going on about the so called wonderful feast she had made, but none of that food was in sight; only evidence that there _had _been food there. Scattered about the kitchen table and the counters were several platters, plates and large bowls that were all empty save for crumbs. She could make out bits of lettuce, meat and white rice littering the area and colorful smears of what she guessed was pie filling. The place was a _mess_ and the floor hadn't been spared either, it was also decorated with remnants of food including what appeared to be grapes that had been crushed underfoot, watermelon seeds, empty aluminum pie tins and discarded muffin papers, a few of which she could see had bites taken out of them. Bulma's eyes widened.

"Move the hell out the way Woman!" Vegeta barked at her impatiently. He felt miserable after eating such an extravagant amount of food so fast in his malnourished state and he was becoming increasingly agitated by the second. He was of no mind to make nice with the woman at the moment, the bet be damned.

Bulma was jerked from her observations by the Saiyan's harsh tone and, now that she actually took a good look at him, she realized that he had a few crumbs on his face as well. She crossed her arms and met his glare with one of her own. "How could you Vegeta?" she demanded. Bulma didn't really care one way or the other about the picnic itself but, she looked over at her mother who was just standing in the middle of the kitchen helplessly, it really bothered her seeing her mother that way. It didn't take much to make the woman happy and all she wanted was to have her little picnic today. She had been ridiculously excited about it and spent the entire morning getting things ready only to have her hopes singlehandedly quashed by Vegeta. And judging by the volume of empty dishes he'd left in his wake, that had been quite a bit of food even for him yet he still wiped out everything with no regard. Bulma was really upset now.

"How could I what?" Vegeta snapped.

"Don't play dumb you greedy little Saiyan! It's obvious that you're the one who ate all the food for the picnic!" Bulma shouted, jabbing her index finger towards the disarray he created in the kitchen as she fiercely condemned him for his crime.

Vegeta growled at the woman yelling in his face, any small measure of patience he might have been miraculously retaining was fast slipping away from him now. He blinked his eyes, they felt so dry and each time he blinked it burned, his eyeballs were on fire and throbbing almost as much as his head was. There was a faint roaring sound going off inside his ears that was becoming progressively louder, but he could still hear the damnable blue haired woman bitching on, and on, and on. He didn't care what she was talking about he just wanted her to shut up and leave him alone, Vegeta's hand was twitching in anger as it slowly lifted from his side, and if she didn't do that real soon then he was going to do it for her.

"Now, now Bulma" said Mrs. Brief suddenly appearing between two of them, her cheerful countenance restored, "I'm sure he didn't mean it, the poor man was probably just so hungry from all his hard training that he didn't see the food I left for him in the fridge," she reasoned.

"Oh don't make excuses for him mom!" Bulma exclaimed and began scolding her mother in place of Vegeta.

Vegeta froze at the elder Brief woman's words and replayed them in his flustered mind.

_Didn't see the food I left for him in the fridge… _

The Prince's already malignant expression darkened further as a hazy mental image of him opening the refrigerator only to find it empty flashed in his mind, then another one of Yamcha rubbing his stomach in an exaggerated fashion.

_Oh boy, I just can't eat anymore. I'm stuffed!_

Vegeta clenched his teeth together which had begun trembling uncontrollably along with the rest of his body, and balled his hands so tightly into fists that his fingernails were cutting into the flesh of his palms, not that he was able to feel it. The roaring in his ears escalated to a thunderous volume and he was virtually deaf to the two women bickering before him. His heart was pumping madly and his eyes were flaming and pulsating insistently in competition with the thumping in his chest, the violent throbbing of his brain, the aching of his fatigued muscles and the sharp pangs afflicting the walls of his stomach. The tandem of these sensations just exacerbated his fury but it was nothing compared to the level it reached when another presence arrived on the scene from the other entrance towards the back of the kitchen.

"Yam…cha" Vegeta grated out from between strenuously clamped teeth.

Mrs. Brief abandoned her dispute with her daughter and whirled around to face Vegeta, "Oh yes, that's right!" she exclaimed brightly, "I told Yamcha to tell you about the nice meal I left for you, didn't he tell you dear?" she asked, leaning quite close to the Saiyan's face.

"Wh-, what…" Vegeta faltered and flinched backward, momentarily discomfited by the eager woman's sudden invasion of his personal space.

"Well _gosh_ Mrs. B, it looks like he ate that too" Yamcha announced loudly.

Everyone's head swiveled in Yamcha's direction who was now standing beside the open dishwasher holding up an empty Tupperware container conspicuously labeled 'VEGETA', in mock surprise.

"Oh my" Mrs. Brief said softly and her perpetual smile vanished once more.

Bulma scowled and turned towards the Saiyan Prince, "So what do you have to say for yourself…" she began but Vegeta wasn't there anymore. "Huh?" Bulma blinked in confusion but before she had time to wonder where he could have gone that fast, she heard her mother scream followed by an awful gurgling noise. The heiress whipped her head back around and quickly discovered that the gurgling sound was coming from Yamcha who was being strangled to death by one seriously pissed off Saiyan.

"Yamcha!" Bulma shrieked.

Puar was in Yamcha's room stretched out on the bed flipping through one his sports magazines. Yamcha had told her he was going downstairs to help Bulma and Mrs. Brief with the picnic preparations and that she should just wait for him upstairs in his room until it was time to go to the park. She offered to help out as well but Yamcha emphatically refused, insisting that she stay put. She was beginning to get rather bored though and also, she couldn't help but be a _tad _bit suspicious of his behavior. Just why couldn't she go downstairs anyway? What was he up to? But on the other hand ever since they got back to the compound, Yamcha's mood seemed to improve drastically and he FINALLY stopped obsessing about getting back at Vegeta, to her relief. At least for now she didn't have to worry about him planning on doing something foolish. Puar sighed and flipped to the next page of the magazine disinterestedly.

Vegeta was oblivious to the two women yelling and pulling at him as he squeezed Yamcha's throat within his fist. "How dare you" he seethed, tightening his grip more and above the persistent roaring in his ears, he listened with manic delight at the weakling's futile attempts to scream for help as he asphyxiated him. Vegeta grinned crookedly while he watched Yamcha's face turn a deep shade of crimson and his eyes, teeming with fear and desperation, start to bulge out of their sockets. He focused intently on watching his victim suffer and tried to ignore the pressure mounting in his brain but it was excruciating, feeling as though something was bludgeoning his skull from the outside while something else was trying to hammer its way out from the inside. His vision blurred and he squeezed his burning eyes shut to clear it and when he opened them he appeared to see not one, but three Yamchas' at the mercy of his wrath. He just laughed at their agonized expressions; he was going to destroy them all for thinking they could play the Prince of all Saiyans for a fool. Vegeta continued laughing psychotically as he emboldened his fist with ki and scalded Yamcha's throat with the heat of his energy.

Yamcha tried to cry out from the pain of his throat being simultaneously crushed and seared but all he could manage were broken gasps and groans that never fully made it past his lips. He feebly kicked at Vegeta and clawed at his hand knowing that it was in vain, all he could do now was stare in abject horror at the Saiyan who was smiling at him sadistically. Yamcha knew that he was not looking into the face of sane person and now more than ever he was reminded that while Vegeta had all the appearances of a human being, he was far from it. He was a **monster**. His evil black eyes were gleaming brilliantly in crazed excitement as they reflected death back at Yamcha; his death. He was literally viewing a dual presentation of his own demise courtesy of the alien's dilated orbs, and with his vision slowly fading and darkness creeping in around the edges; everything was like a hazy vignette. Yamcha shut his eyes unable to watch any longer, he couldn't do it, he couldn't watch himself die and Vegeta was surely going to kill him.

"Vegeta stop it, you're killing him!" Bulma screamed over and over again while she alternated between pummeling the Saiyan's back with her fists and trying to wrench his right hand away from Yamcha's neck, but Vegeta was immovable.

"Do something Bulma!" her mother implored.

"I'm…try…ing!" Bulma ground out as she planted her feet firmly and pulled against Vegeta's arm with all her might to no avail. She let go of him and hunched over with her hands on her knees, completely out of breath from all of her efforts. "This isn't" she panted for a few seconds, "gonna work. Think Bulma" she gulped for air, "Think!" she wracked her brain furiously knowing full well that if she didn't think of something STAT it was going to be the end of Yamcha, again. Obviously she wasn't strong enough to force Vegeta to stop and screaming at him was ineffective, so maybe she should try reasoning with him instead? The heiress swallowed nervously and went over the Saiyan's left side. "Vegeta?" she said as steadily as she could, trying not to panic from the horrific sounds wrenching from her boyfriend's throat. He didn't acknowledge her. Bulma leaned over to try to address Vegeta again face to face and immediately shrank back a little in fear. She'd seen Vegeta angry before but this was a whole new acme of rage, the likes of which she had never seen in him before. He looked wholly _insane_, POSSESSED even. And his eyes, the whites of which were totally red and wrought with even redder veins, were blinking erratically and darting all around like he wasn't just looking at Yamcha, but perhaps _other_ things that only he could see?

Bulma was frightened and worried now more than ever; for Vegeta. It was clear to her that something was very wrong with him. She knew had to get him to calm down somehow but she just didn't know what to do. Bulma wrung her hands anxiously for a moment in despair and then immediately became frustrated with herself for wasting more time. Whatever she was going to do she had to do it quick, she didn't know how long Yamcha could hold out. She quickly stepped in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders, "Vegeta, please stop this, you've got to calm down," she pleaded with him, "you've got to breathe." But he didn't seem to hear nor see her. Bulma took a deep breath and moved in closer to him and spoke softly next to his ear. "Calm down Vegeta, breathe…just breathe." 'If I can just get him to breathe then maybe he will snap out it.' she told herself with contrived optimism.

She demonstrated by inhaling and exhaling slowly, making sure her chest rose and fell in a peaceful rhythm up against his chest that was heaving wildly. Then, Bulma hesitantly lifted her hands to either side of his head and began to run her fingers through his hair and gently massaged his scalp in a further attempt to soothe him. She knew at least that this was something that had been successful in calming her own self down in the past, but she had no idea if it would be effective on Vegeta. Bulma had no other plan though; this was it and she desperately hoped it would work. Not knowing what else to do, Bulma just kept breathing and trying to coax the delirious Prince in her arms to breathe as she continued massaging his head, working her way back to the base of his skull.

Vegeta blinked profusely as his vision started going black until he was unable to see anymore but he kept his hold on Yamcha. Though he could no longer see him, he could still feel him wriggling pathetically in his grasp and he was still going to finish him. Having no need to keep his eyes open Vegeta just let them shut completely and somehow over the vicious cacophony in his head he began to hear someone calling out to him. At first the sounds were too faint to be distinguishable but then it kept getting closer and clearer.

_Breathe Vegeta…just breathe…_

He jerked his head trying to shake the voice away but it kept persisting. It was so close now that it sounded like it was speaking to him from inside of his head.

_Take a deep breath with me Vegeta…_

The roaring in Vegeta's ears slowly began to subside and he became aware of something pressing upon his scalp, tenderly kneading away the unbearable tension in his brain. His jaw, which had been fiercely set, went slack out of relief and he breathed in deeply through his mouth unconsciously following the soothing voice's instruction.

_Breathe…_

His heart rate gradually declined and his chest started rising and falling in sync with Bulma's. His steadfast grip on Yamcha's neck loosened. With the loss of adrenaline Vegeta began to feel just how exhausted he truly was, never having had the chance to rest since his marathon training session. His body sagged and his chin leaned forward onto Bulma's shoulder and finally he released Yamcha, letting him crumple to the floor.

Bulma had her eyes closed all the while she chanted in the Prince's ear and moved her fingers deftly across his scalp. She opened her eyes when she felt him resting on her shoulder and realized that his heart was now beating at a normal pace. "It actually worked," she whispered, and then a moment later she heard Yamcha coughing and hacking violently from the kitchen floor. Bulma let go of Vegeta and rushed over to her boyfriend.

Vegeta groggily steadied himself after being thrown off balance by Bulma's sudden departure from him. He opened his blistering eyes finding himself able to see once more and saw her down on the floor with Yamcha while her mother hovered over them worriedly. His migraine was already starting to return following the loss of her healing touch but even more so when he saw her fussing all over her weakling. He felt a resurgence of adrenaline and the roaring in his ears came back like it'd never left. Vegeta fought to get himself under control as he watched Bulma cradling Yamcha in her arms and kissing his forehead. He had no idea why it was making him so angry, and he was becoming more angry because he didn't know why he getting so angry. It couldn't be because the woman left his side to go be with the weakling instead, it couldn't be because she was touching her inferior human now instead of him…could it? Vegeta shut his eyes furiously trying to head off his thoughts, they were just confirmation that he was not in his right mind. He had to get out there immediately; he had to go blast something to hell.

"Oh Yamcha" Bulma fretted mournfully as he wheezed in her lap. She just kept stroking his hair helplessly as she waited for him to get his breath back. Tears accumulated in the corners of her eyes when she saw how bruised and mottled Yamcha's neck was, and it was also raw and glazy like it had been burned. 'Why does it look like he was burned?' she wondered, 'Why would Vegeta do this?' She lifted her head up to him for answers but he was gone.

"Masenko…" Gohan was hovering in the air with his arms raised and his hands overlapping one another on top of his forehead. He breathed laboriously as he struggled to charge his most powerful attack. About 100ft below him on the ground was his dad and his mentor Piccolo was standing nearby. The little half-Saiyan was well embellished with scrapes and bruises, the traditional Namekian uniform he was wearing was hopelessly tattered, and it was an arduous feat just for him to remain airborne, but still he stubbornly continued to gather the last of his precious energy for this final act. He could tell that his dad wanted him to call it a day but he was not done yet, there was no way he was going to just quit now. He was never going to get as strong as his dad and Piccolo by quitting.

"Ha!" Gohan screamed, firing the blast down at his dad.

Goku stood perfectly relaxed as he smirked up at the energy hurdling toward him. He didn't start charging up his own beam until Gohan's was three quarters of the way to him.

"Kamehameha!" Goku shouted back, propelling a blue wave of energy forth to meet his son's Masenko blast.

The two beams collided and pretty soon Goku's blue beam was overtaking Gohan's gold one. The little boy bared his teeth and tried to summon strength he did not have to try to stop the Kamehameha that was quickly closing in on him. He screamed and forced himself to push even harder but he was too weak, he couldn't stop it. The blue energy overwhelmed his own and struck him in the chest, knocking the remaining wind out of him sending him flying half a mile across the valley. He landed on his back hard on the rocky surface and lay there with his eyes closed panting. Shortly after, Goku and Piccolo descended from the sky and touched down next to him. "I think he's finally had enough for today" Goku remarked.

Gohan cracked one of his eyes open and with the sun's blinding rays upon him it took him a few moments to register his father's face smiling down at him.

Goku offered a hand to his son and raised his eyebrows in surprise when Gohan reached up and smacked it away.

"No" Gohan protested, struggling to pick himself up off the ground, "I'm not giving up yet" he insisted defiantly. Beads of sweat trickled down his face as he fought to sit up. Using his elbow as leverage, he managed to almost make it to a complete sitting position before he fell back onto the ground and passed out.

Goku chuckled and bent down to pick his child up off the ground and laid him across his shoulder. "I'm real proud of you Gohan", he told the unconscious boy, "let's go home". He was about to make his departure when he felt a spike of energy nearby. "Huh?" The Saiyan paused and concentrated on the energy. "Wow, that's Vegeta's energy signal alright but it's out of control". Goku's eyebrows drew down as he continued to focus on it.

"Leave it alone Goku" came Piccolo's gravelly voice next him.

Goku frowned at the other warrior and then went back to frowning in the direction of the energy he was feeling. "But Vegeta's ki feels extremely unstable right now, something's wrong. I know you can sense it too Piccolo", he said very seriously.

The Namek was also frowning towards the direction of the tumultuous ki. Goku was correct in his assessment, it was indeed disturbing. "Vegeta does seem to be out of control but whatever caused him to lose it is not in this place; it's miles away. He's running from something or someone, maybe both, and he came all the way out here away from civilization to release his frustrations when he could have easily done so around innocent people. He must not be completely far gone if he was able to make such a decision. Vegeta can take care of himself, our presence would only make things worse." He advised the worried Saiyan just as seriously.

Goku locked eyes with his friend for a moment and nodded. Then he turned back to cast a final glance out into the distance, "Vegeta…"

On the other side of the valley Vegeta was on a desperate rampage, he was so unhinged that he failed to notice the power levels not too far away from him. He was unbridled and acting only on primal instinct as he fully succumbed to his rage and thirst for destruction. Vegeta did not allow himself to think while he attempted to annihilate everything around him in existence. Aim was not even an afterthought as he hurled blast after blast indiscriminately around the valley giving no care to where they landed. He just wanted to make sure every peak, cliff, plateau, rock formation and boulder within a 5 mile radius felt his wrath. When all that was left was dust and rubble all around him, the Prince took to the air searching for something else to destroy.

He flew for a couple of minutes before he landed between two enormous peaks that had somehow managed to escape the onslaught. Vegeta growled at the peak to his right and then at the one to his left before he charged a Gallick Gun in each hand and roared as he launched them at his imposing targets. After the blasts hit he dropped to the ground on his hands and knees as showers of rock fragments and clouds of dust converged on him. He stayed on the ground heaving for a while with his head hanging limply to his chest then he painfully endeavored to raise himself up on knee. Vegeta had been running on pure adrenaline before but it was rapidly wearing off now, and he was brutally reminded of his physical limitations as he tried, and failed, to stand. He attempted to haul himself up once more but quickly gave up on the notion of standing altogether and remained on all fours gasping for air. A sudden shrill chorus of screeches resounded above him at which Vegeta strained to lift his heavy head skyward. He squinted up at the flock of crows flying overhead and then promptly collapsed face forward in the dirt.

**AN: Sorry guys, I really really really meant to update this story a LONG time ago but I just had a wicked case of writer's block and not much time to write. I have no intention of not finishing this story though, I repeat, ZERO intention of leaving this story unfinished. And thanks to all my reviewers! I never expected to get so many reviews already and thanks to everyone who faved/followed/read my story:) Hopefully you'll hang in there with me until the end. Now about chapter 9, um, I really struggled with it for some reason and I can't say that I'm happy with it but I am happy that it's finally up. I made it longer than usual (mainly because I hadn't updated in ages) and hopefully you guys enjoyed it but if you didn't, let me know, cast your stones! I totally deserve it for taking so long to update haha. REVIEW!**

**PS. **I just assumed that ya'll know what "**STAT**" means but jusssst in case anyone doesn't **STAT **is a medical term that is an abbreviation for the word 'statim',which is Latin for "immediately", but it's used as slang too and there is an acronym for it – **S**ooner **T**han **A**lready **T**here. If you didn't know already now you do;-)

**PPS. **Sorry again for the long wait:/


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